Mass Glitch
by joshingblock
Summary: Warp-jump accidents are few and far in between, even more so are the times where one accidentally jumps to an entirely different universe. Stonewire is one of those unlucky few, and finds himself in a galaxy where his kind is hated for the mere crime of existence.
1. The Escape

**Lets see how this goes**

 **Starbound is owned by Chucklefish**

 **Mass Effect is owned by Bioware**

 **I own a nice pair of socks...and the OC I guess**

 **For those who know about my other story (Very little I'm sure) I'm not giving up on that one but felt like giving another story a try**

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" _Time to wake, Stonewire."_ A feminine synthetic voice noted.

" _Drowsy. I would rather not."_ A robotic voice replied.

Most would say that the voice was deadpan, that it held no emotion, but in reality that is the way of the Glitch.

" _Turning on lights."_ The female voice on the other hand, held an annoyed tone.

As the lights filled the room the glitch attempted to cover his head with his blanket to block out the light. Unfortunately his optics still picked up the light, forcing him to stay awake.

" _Frustrated. I'm up, I'm up."_ Stonewire stated.

The glitch pulled himself from his sheets and sat at the side of his bed. He stretched his arms above his head releasing an audible groan that sounded like air through speakers.

" _Inquire. Sail, status report?"_ Stonewire asked as he slipped his shoes from the side of his bed onto his feet.

Stonewire stood and looked around his room. A simple wooden queen sized bed took up the back part with a night stand on both sides across from his bed is a just as simple table with a chair underneath, a single door next to the table and another door across from it. A single screen on the side turned on with a featureless digitized red face.

" _The Avians of this planet have taken note of their Messiah's 'disappearance' and have begun to overthrow the few l_ _oyalists that remain."_ Sail explained.

Stonewire made his way to the second automated door in his room and entered his bathroom with all the bathroom essentials. He stood next to the sink and turned on the water and splashed some on his face.

" _Surprised. Only a few?"_ He expected there to be more who would follow the false prophet.

He looked above the sink to see a familiar face staring back at him. A silver dome and a slit with two blue pixelated lights, on the side of his head are small black plates. He grabbed a towel and wiped his face dry before tossing it into a basket.

" _Before the Messiah's 'departure' it seemed most only served in fear."_ The AI informed.

Sounded about right, not that he could blame them, he was all too familiar with the sting of a ruler's unrelenting show of strength. Still, it did unsettle him how easy it was to 'take care' of the dictator. Guess it's easy when they think that they have everything and everyone under their thumb.

Stonewire quickly got dressed in his casual attire, button up T-shirt, tan jeans with a gold leather belt, and a pair of brown boots. He then made his way to the elevator and went to the first floor. At the bottom he found himself in the kitchen/recreational room, but decided against eating until they've left the system.

As he was about to leave he stopped at the door and moved his lower arms up and down. Small squeaks escaped his joints. ' _Coffee wouldn't hurt.'_ He thought to himself.

" _Inform. Sail, I'm going to make something to drink. Eager. You mind setting a course for a new system?"_ He asked as he made his way to the coffee machine.

" _Of course Stonewire, where do you wish to go?"_ Sail asked, sounding quite curious as to what her creator had in mind.

" _Absorbed. I don't really know, how about you surprise me."_ He said as he added coffee beans to the machine.

" _Warning, low fuel. Only enough for two jumps."_ Sail warned.

That got Stonewire's attention, but only for a second. " _Carefree. I'm sure wherever you jump us will have some fuel for sell. Excited. Jump us some place far."_ Stonewire added.

" _A far jump could take an estimate of two to three days. Chances of finding someone who sells fuel is seventy-three point four percent."_ Sail carefully informed.

" _Witty. With two jumps that leaves us at a total of two-hundred percent with a one-hundred and forty-six point eight chance. Pleased. That leaves us with a fifty-three point two percent margin for error, I'm sure we'll be fine."_ Stonewire quickly retorted as he poured his freshly brewed coffee into his mug.

" _Fine, but if we get stuck, you will have to find fuel."_ Stone was about to interject before Sail continued, " _I know you hate mining but it will have to be done if you do not find someone who's selling what you need."_ Sail said as if scolding a child.

" _Baffled. Okay, okay, there was no need for that."_ He quickly responded.

Stonewire could hear the engines kick to life as a sign that the jump was about to commence. As he brought his mug up to the place a mouth would be, a small slit opened allowing the warm liquid to flow into his chassis. He could already feel the liquid being broken down to be used as lubricant and cooling, of course the taste was just as good. Being self aware and an advanced AI had its perks.

* * *

Stonewire always had something to do. If there was someone with pixels and a good reason for wanting someone to wind up dead, He's your glitch. That was his last job and now he's been on his ship for about one day and he already wished he had someone that wanted him dead just to kill the boredom, why did he have to have emotions?

He had Sail and while she is what he considered a friend, they know each other inside and out, literally.

Noticing that Stonewire was sprawled out on the floor looking all so pathetic, Sail decide that maybe he could use a distraction.

" _Stonewire, weren't you working on some things. I'm sure that the cargo hold workshop could use your attention."_ Sail advised.

Stonewire immediately sat up " _Recall. Yes, Thank you Sail. Excited. Maybe I can finish one of them today."_

With that Stonewire made his way to the cargo hold to get started on his projects.

The cargo hold was meant to hold his vehicles but slowly over time and with upgrades it became that and more. The only real vehicle he has is his mech that he still needs to fix, but for now he needed to work on something else.

The first thing he wanted to finish was the wrist mounted matter manipulator. Well, it wouldn't be a matter manipulator when he was done. He, as stated by Sail, hates mining, but he still needed to carry the damn thing around if he wanted to scan and hack into things. If he builds it right he should have a reliable tool that didn't weigh more than his armor.

Going through one of the crates in the hold he found what he was looking for. He's gone through about three different matter manipulators but he was so close to finishing the job. He went over to his workbench with the objects of interest in hand and dumped them on the table.

Before he got to work he quickly grabbed a pair of gloves, an apron, goggles, and a mask with tinted lens. He already had the screen in place for input but he still had to work on the wiring. This took him little over six hours to do but in the end he completed it. Well, he thought he completed it. He would have to take it on a test run before he could really see if it worked.

He mounted the device to his wrist and locked the metal straps in place.

" _Anxious. Sail, I could use some help testing this out."_ Stonewire called out as he lifted the mask.

A screen above his workbench lit up displaying the AI.

" _Kindly. If you could please interface with this-"_ He raised his wrist,"-and give it a once over, I would appreciate it."

" _Understood."_ As she said this the screen went dark.

Stonewire turned on the device and synced it on the same network he built for Sail. A few seconds passed before the screen flickered then changed from green to red. A message bubble popped up from the bottom right of the screen and he quickly opened it.

" _Is it safe to have it connected to the same network as me? If it or I was to be compromised both would fail - From Sail."_

Stonewire instantly sent a message back through the two small buttons labeled as '1' and '0' as only his kind and few others knew binary and with his robotic fingers he could easily send a long message this way within thirty seconds.

" _I know this and have already accounted for it. I will be changing it so that you can transfer between both but for now I needed you to be able to access it. P.S. you don't have to add your name to the end. You and I will be the only ones connected to this device. P.S.S. Can you access both simultaneously, might cut the downtime?"_

A message quickly pushed his up out of view on the screen.

" _I should be able to handle multiple stations as that is what you built me for."_ Stone could feel the sass, " _Other than not being able to mine with this, it should have all the other functions. I would recommend adding on functions and software when needed."_

The image on the device flickered again but nothing changed. The screen above his workbench turned back on as a familiar face took up the space and then turned back off. He felt the device buzz and looked to see a new message.

" _That was kind of fun, can't wait to be out on the field with you :). But I'm sure there is one more thing you were working on."_

He almost forgot. He hastily pushed all his junk into a crate near by and ran over to a much larger metal crate. He lifted it easily enough and put it next to his bench. He pulled out what looked to be a rifle.

He's been developing the thing for over two years, but he was sure he had it this time. He has all the parts to makes this weapon perfect. He set the rifle part down before reaching back into the crate pulling out a pair of metal crossbow limbs. Now, if he was careful he could have a fully functional adaptable crossbow.

The ammo was probably the easiest of all the parts to collect. In the end he had a small slim cylinder, by itself it was completely harmless, but if he gets the crossbow part working he could have a 'built for any situation' weapon.

* * *

He has never had something blow up in his face more than a weapon he was trying to build.

Another day has passed and he feels his patience running thin. First the charging mechanic overloaded and nearly took his arm off, so he implemented a safety that kept it from reaching the overcharge point. Then it decided that it was underpowered and sent whatever power it gathered back into the cylinder causing it to explode.

When it was finally not blowing up, it was the recoil trying to kill him. The whole reason for the crossbow limbs was to evenly disperse the recoil but instead it sent him flying back into a pile of crates. More adjustment and this time he thought he had it, until there was no recoil at all and the bolt limped out of the rifle a foot from him, exploding and sent him into a wall instead.

After the last adjustment he was able to fire it without being sent across the room. Only thing he had to do now was see if he could switch the ammo type. On the side of the barrel was seven buttons all labeled with different symbols.

At the moment the cylinder attached behind the front grip was glowing yellow. So he decided to switch to the snowflake. He pressed the button and the color of the cylinder started turning blue. Stonewire was ecstatic until it started turning red.

Stonewire instantaneously undid the cylinder and threw it across the room as it exploded. He stood, arms at his sides for what felt like hours before he saw one of the monitors turn on.

" _Not going so well is it?"_ Sail asked, genuinely concerned.

" _Infuriated! I don't know what I'm doing wrong, every time I get close something new goes wrong!"_ He still sounded emotionless but the volume of his voice filled the empty spaces of his hanger.

" _You did get it to fire the basic energy bolt. That in itself is commendable."_ she said calmly.

" _Furious! Any moron with half a brain could build a crossbow! Explanation. What I'm trying to make would change how my missions went, I can't carry an arsenal to make sure I have the right weapon for the right job."_ His volume lowered as he continued to talk " _Upset. If I don't see another explosion in my life, it will be too soon."_ He said, putting the crossbow on the table.

There was a long silence as Stonewire made his way to the front of the ship. He sat back in his chair and just looked out the window as the stars passed by, leaving stretched lines of white across the dark abyss that quickly faded, Sail broke the silence.

" _Do you remember the day you built me? I remember it well, it's the first memory I ever made. You thought you had failed, that you created nothing but a screensaver."_

" _Reminisce. I didn't want to buy an AI, I really wanted to make something. Amused. Even before my awakening I loved building things. Guilty. If I didn't notice the defective speaker I'm afraid I would have thrown you away."_

" _You didn't. I remember those frustrating weeks you looked over me, determined to figure out a solution. The day you did I was still nothing more than an expensive calculator."_ Sail said nostalgically.

" _Whimsical. At least you didn't blow up in my face fifty-seven times."_ Stonewire joked.

" _Yes, that is the sad side of not being a weapon."_ Sail sarcastically said.

" _Genuine. I still think we need to give you a proper name."_

" _I like Sail."_ She reassured.

A comfortable silence filled the ship as Stonewire enjoyed the passing stars, comfortable in his captain's chair. He wonders if this is all worth it. Going around, being a hired killer. It was what he was when he was sleeping and he stayed that way after the fact. He could have been anything after his awakening. With his tech skills he could have been someone else. Instead all he did was turn the blade onto someone more deserving.

" _Are you thinking of changing careers again?"_ Sail asked.

Sail always knew what he was thinking about. Not because they are robots, Glitch don't have any online tech so connecting to other tech was impossible. No, she just knows what kind of person Stonewire is.

" _Joyful. Think about it, we could be the owners of a nice little shop on an outer system. Daydream. We could call it 'Scrap into tech: we put the drive into jump drive. Wistful. What do you think?"_

" _Whatever the name, I will be there."_ Sail replied.

Sail has had this same talk with him many times since her coming into being. She always gave the same answer, but Stonewire always had a new name and slogan. Maybe someday his dream would become reality, but there was always other work to be done.

" _five minutes till we..."_ Sail suddenly cut off.

" _Worried. Something wrong Sail?"_

" _Something has changed about our destination. Long range scanners detecting multiple cruisers in the drop zone."_

" _Concern. That can't be possible, it's impossible to know where someone will jump unless you are in the same area when the former jumps. Understanding. Unless they aren't there for us."_

" _Correct, but the chances of any ship running into an ongoing conflict is more unlikely."_ Sail stated.

" _Bitter. Well it seems we are just that lucky. Order. Get the cannons fired up, don't want to be there too long and if it's between any of my kind I don't want to be caught in the middle of it. Worry. Time to test how long it would take to jump after a jump. Inquire. Need estimates of how long till we can jump again."_ Stonewire said while pressing a button on his armrest moving him over to a new set of consoles.

" _Estimating... need ten minutes. Eight minutes to cool the warp drive and two more to charge it. Weapons are primed and ready."_

" _Pleased. I shoot, you fly. Anxious. Let the show begin."_ He said as he pushed a few buttons before a pair of joysticks raised out of the console and the screen above it turned on.

The once pleasant sound of leaving a jump was replaced with eagerness to enter the next jump to escape whatever conflict they were about to interrupt. As the blur of the jump finally faded, they could see things clearly and it was a bit of a surprise.

It was a battle between Avian and Floran. Stone hoped that one of them would have been Glitch, as that would have meant that only one side would shoot at him. The worst news was that they jumped right into the middle of the fighting and were immediately fired upon.

" _They don't seem happy to see us."_ Sail pointed out.

Most would say they were unlucky to be flying a frigate of the Glitch fleet up against a space filled with at least thirty or more cruisers on each side. Good news was that Stonewire had been working on his ship since it was scrap. Unlike most space faring frigates his ship wasn't just fast, it had the firepower to go with it.

With Sail at the helm and Stonewire on the guns they made themselves the hardest target to hit and they retaliated with their own volley at the attacking parties. Stonewire doesn't know who is right or who is wrong, but at that moment it didn't matter both had opened fire on him without even trying to contact him. To Stonewire that meant war.

By the time eight minutes passed Stonewire and Sail had a kill count of sixteen ships. They didn't come out unscathed but they were looking better than a lot of the other guys. Things were running smoothly until a flash of light revealed a Avian pyramid Dreadnought.

Stonewire really hoped that backup would have arrived a little later when he was gone. Nothing he could do now but try to stay out of the way.

That probably would have worked if it didn't look like it was gunning for him.

" _It seems we got more attention than hoped."_ Sail stated.

" _Annoyed. Just keep us functional until we are ready to jump."_

" _With how it's pursuing it will most likely jump after us." Sail said with a hint of concern._

" _Confident. If you can get me behind it I'll take care of that. Calm. Just be ready to jump."_

" _Understood."_

Sail dodged and weaved through the constant firing from both the new arrival and what was left of the cruisers. Of course Stonewire was doing his part in finishing what was coming after them with the two double barrel cannons that sat above the front and back and the one at the bottom front of his ship.

As planned, Sail got them behind the Dreadnought. Only thing is that it has plasma cannons on just about every possible angle. He still needed to make his shot, so Stonewire turned all of the cannons to port and sent a barrage onto the enemy's engines.

" _The warp drive is set and ready for escape. T minus thirty seconds."_ Sail announced.

What Stonewire didn't anticipate was a large explosion from within the Dreadnought, sending large pieces of heated shrapnel at unbelievable speeds.

The explosion sent enough force by itself to throw Stonewire from his seat and onto the cold metal floor.

" _Panic! We need to jump now Sail!"_ He said at higher volume as he pushed himself from the floor.

" _The warp drive is damaged, if we jump now there is a high proba-"_

" _Frantic! We need to jump now or we'll be torn apart!"_ Stonewire interrupted.

" _Initiating jump."_

With that the Glitch ship disappeared from the battlefield, but not in the usual flash of blue light. Instead it was replaced with a red explosion and an electromagnetic pulse. As the pulse traveled it fried every other still functioning ship's engines in the dead of space with no way of contact.

What was left of the Dreadnought soon chained into multiple explosions, destroying whatever was too close.

* * *

" _Stonewire, wake up!"_

This seemed very familiar to Stonewire. Like he had already gone through this, except his soft bed was replaced with the feeling of metal and still feeling as if he just got thrown into several walls.

" _Stone, are you okay!?"_ Why was Sail yelling?

" _Groggy. I'm up, no need to yell."_

" _You've been unconscious for three hours, twenty-two minutes and forty-nine seconds. I was afraid you might have shattered something."_ Sail said, expressing her concern.

" _Confused. What happened?"_ He asked, getting up as he felt a pain in his shoulder. From what he could tell his joint was just dislocated and not broken. Good, last thing he needed was a repairman when he considered himself better at it.

" _From speculation it is probable that when you destroyed the engines it sent an energy feedback loop to their reactor. If we didn't jump I suspect we would have been caught in a chain explosion."_

Stonewire decided that he would solve one of their problems right there and rammed his bad shoulder into the frame of the door. With a resounding pop he rolled his shoulder a few times to make sure everything was in place. Stonewire turned around to see that they were just now exiting warp.

" _Inquire. damage report?"_ He asked as he made his way out the control room.

He soon found himself in the recreational room and noticed it wasn't at all that bad. Some tables and chairs were not locked properly because of timing but for the most part things like the fridge and cooking stations were unharmed.

" _As you can see, the recreational room is unharmed but there is multiple tasks that need your attention starting with the most critical. The reactor was hit and is leaking but is stable for the meantime, next would be the teleportal as it has suffered multiple beatings and the diamond core needs replacing, last is the cargo hold. It was breached and at the moment the gravity generator is keeping what wasn't spaced to the floor." Sail listed._

" _Nervous. Is that all?"_ He said as he tugged on the collar of his shirt.

" _No, that is not all. There are is software that was damaged that I will have to backup and restore. One of those systems has stopped me from checking inventory in the cargo hold so you'll have to manually go through it. Another system was the galactic maps we've collected so until that is fixed I cannot triangulate our position, so in other words we are lost."_

" _Suggestion. If communication is functional, we could send a distress message. Concern. Not right now of course, I will fix what's physical and you will work on other systems and we can only hope that I'm as good an engineer as I say."_ Stonewire didn't like to rely on others but a helping hand is never looked past.

" _Noted, Some facilities will be offline due to the reactor leak, good luck."_ She said as the screen she was displayed on switched off.

The first thing Stonewire did was head down to the cargo hold. He knew he needed to get to the reactor but without the proper tools to seal the leak all he would do is look at a hole.

One of the first things he noticed was the lack of air. Only the awaken knew they didn't need to breath, so the reason he knew there was no air was because he could simulate breathing without the need.

The other thing he noticed was the large hole and a lot of crates on their sides. He would worry about inventory later. Stonewire quickly found the crate he needed for reactor repairs and made for the reactor room.

Entering the reactors room Stonewire saw the problem almost immediately. Other species would say that the problem was that Glitch reactors look a lot like furnaces but just like a Glitch, they may look simple or outdated on the outside but on the inside are a marvel of technical genius.

Stonewire made quick work of the leak so they wouldn't be blowing up anytime soon. Meanwhile Sail finished restoring the backups for the maps and started trying to find out where they landed.

Stonewire was working on sealing the breach using an emergency escape hatch and a grappling hook to seal it from outside. Once that was done, he made sure to rewire what was disconnect in the wall before finishing the seal on the inside. As soon as he finished one of the screens on the wall turned on.

" _Stonewire, I've finished all the required backups and have done proper inventory inspection. It seems that many of the crates that were spaced were your building materials. There's one more bit of bad news that I feel you will need to sit down for."_

" _Confused. What about the teleporter, I haven't fixed it yet."_ He asked as he put his tools and leftover scrap into an empty crate.

" _No point, replacement parts were spaced like many other things."_ She said the last part in a whisper.

" _Worry. What other things?"_

" _It seems that a large supply of your pixels were also spaced. Seventy-three point five to be precise."_

" _Confused. Why would you think that would bother me. Joyful. You know that I keep a stash of pixels on our planet."_ Stonewire informed.

" _Just go to the kitchen."_ She said before her avatar disappeared.

' _This can't be good.'_ He thought.

* * *

" _Stunned. So, no way home."_ Stonewire said at a low volume.

" _Not exactly. Some of the systems we've been to are the same, but there are anomalies, stars that are off or have completely changed and the few planets I can reach with the scanner don't have the fuel sources we seek. At the moment though, it seems we will need to activate the distress beacon"_ She explained, trying her best to keep her creator from being discouraged.

" _Distraught. I'm going to stay in the cargo hold. Hurt. I'll try not to blow myself up, let me know when someone comes along."_ He said, still at low volume as he walked out.

She hated seeing him like that, a feeling she's rarely felt only when he almost seemed broken. She knew it wasn't about the pixels. It was his home and with them both being AI's they were still so different. Home for Sail was always by her creator's side but for him it was a galaxy he was changing for the better so that others after him could live a better life.

Now he was someplace that was not his home, that he never made a difference in. She tried to soften the blow of not knowing where they were, but he knew her to well and got the truth out of her. The truth was even with the scanner having a short range she could still use the star map, but no matter how far or which direction she went the similarities were close but not enough.

In the end she hoped that someone was around. Maybe a human, they always seemed to cheer Stonewire up.

With that last thought she activated the beacon.

 **0o0o0o0o0o0**

 **Boom done with that**

 **now to see how the readers like it**

 **most chapters won't be this long (most will be 2,000 or more)**

 **Leave a review if you can**

 **Follow if you want**


	2. The Hijack

**Starbound is owned by Chucklefish**

 **Mass Effect is owned by Bioware**

 **But you knew that already**

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Stonewire was working on his mech in complete silence. He wanted to clear his head, _needed_ to. He went over the facts.

He was in a new galaxy, but also a similar one. Sail said that this was The Milky Way. That should have been good news, Stonewire was on good terms with the humans. When he got a look at the data Sail collected there was many similarities. The problem was what wasn't similar, there was many planets that didn't match previous data. This did not include the the numerous power spikes in most of the systems.

One of the biggest anomalies was Earth. Last he heard Earth was destroyed by some kind of space monster. So why did the new data say that the same planet was sitting pretty in the same spot.

With all this information he could only hypothesis that the safety precautions on the warp drive were overloaded by the power surge after the reactor leak. He's lucky that there wasn't any more damage, he's a good engineer but there's only so much one Glitch can do.

The warp drive was a complex device that folded space and time to shorten the amount of time it took to travel between systems and galaxies. Simply put, that if you started on one side of a piece of paper and wanted to travel to the other side quickly, the best way would be by folding the piece in half shortening the travel time. With the warp drive that was possible, but the longer the jump, the more folds that were needed.

That kind of strain showed to be too much, some time before the precautions peculiar things would happen. Some of the stories said that whole new planets popped into existence or that new species just showed up, but the most common was ships that were never seen again.

This theory was the closest the Glitch could make sense of his predicament. Making sense of it did not make him feel any better about it. When he thought about it, it was quite childish the way he was moping around in his work. He called that space his home but could he really say that he was sad to see it gone.

He did suspect that the few people he knew that would come looking for him, they would find his will that he left when and if he died. He really didn't have any regrets or connections that would explain his mood. Maybe it was the fact that he couldn't return. He couldn't risk recreating the jump.

As he finished up those thoughts he realized he completed the wiring in the mech's legs. He closed the panel on the leg he finished. Stonewire found the appropriate metal box and started putting away the equipment.

After putting everything away, he took off the workshop gloves. Putting them both into the box he looked at his metal hands. They are jointed like human hands, in fact his whole design was based on humans if they were to wear skin tight medieval armor. Just like humans, Glitch had no clue who created them.

At one point in Stonewire's life he tried to find the ones who built him. Maybe to ask why his people have to endure. He knew why he was created; to simulate the rise and downfall of civilization. What he wanted to know was why? He's seen many Glitch kingdoms; some died to famine, some fell to war, and some fell to the conditions of the planet. Or maybe he would just kill his creators like he was programmed.

* * *

"What a haul!" A Batarian shouted.

"Lower your damn voice!" A Krogan shouted back, killing the Batarian's mood. "Though I do agree, the intel was perfect. Don't think we've ever bagged this many Humans before."

"At least not in the Terminus system." A new Batarian entered the conversation sitting himself next to the other one with a tray of food. "From what I've heard the exact numbers are eighty- three humans, would have been more if the guards were smart. They were wearing the Cerberus uniform. I heard that the on board doctor is already fitting some with implants."

"Maybe we can get a frigate, the way things are going we're going to need the space. Maybe we can go on bigger raids." The first Batarian said back finishing off his drink before leaving.

The Krogan grunted before bringing up his omni-tool.

"The fun's not over yet. Captain say's some Pyjaks are stranded and we're going to go 'pick them up' on the way. Should be easy, any ship asking for help out here must be desperate." He said before standing from his seat.

"Don't have too many cells left. Might be able to fit a few more in the occupied cells. Otherwise gonna have to throw a few out the airlock." The Batarian informed.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." The Krogan said with a slight chuckle as he left the mess hall.

* * *

" _Satisfied. There, now the arms should work. Defeated. And now I have nothing to do."_ Stonewire realized as his shoulders dropped.

He's been out in this space for a day now. For the most part he kept himself busy but slowly and surely he's done just about everything there is to do on a ship that can only fit at max a crew of a hundred.

The screen above his workshop turned on revealing Sail's avatar.

" _Good to see you finally fix the mech."_ She commented.

" _Explanation. Well there's not many times I would need a mech with what I do."_ He stated.

" _I've detected a vessel making it's way to us. A cruiser of sorts."_ Sail informed.

" _Worry. A cruiser? Cautious. We are a large frigate with no way of maneuvering. Order. Keep the guns down, last thing we need is them firing on us for being armed. Concern. Easy to fight when you're faster but we're just fish in a barrel for anyone coming by."_ He said as he moved over to the screen.

Pressing a couple of buttons he accessed the exterior cams and scanned the area for any signs of the ship. After two minutes of searching he saw the ship enter view.

It was not what he expected. The ship in of itself was close to what he considered a apex ship with its slick design and firepower, but the craft had a forked end and many counterparts that extended from the main mass.

He had to start planning right away, too late to activate the cloak.

Stonewire went over to a small crate and pulled out two black golf ball sized spheres. He held one in each hand and walked over to the open area of the hangar.

" _What do you plan to do with those?"_ asked Sail as her image jumped to another monitor.

" _Hypothesis. If they have bad intentions, they could be two things: either they are scavengers and are here to scrap us or they are slavers here to do what slavers do best. Useless. If they are the former there is little we can do to stop their attack. Favorable. If it's the latter they will try to lie and board our vessel. acceptable. Our teleporter being busted means they can't board us that way."_ Stonewire explained.

As he was talking he pushed a single button on one of the balls and tossed it out. When it hit the ground it broke apart to form a disc. The Glitch then started walking to the other side of the ship.

" _You still haven't answer my question."_ Sail stated.

Stonewire knew what she meant. The spheres were meant for quick escapes. Leave one where you wanted to return to and use the other when you needed to.

Simply put they were teleporters. Only problem was that they didn't work and are extremely expensive. Every time he tested one the second one would fuse with the other and melt the diamond cores. Of course there was a bright side.

" _Straightforward. They work on organics."_ Stonewire said as he opened a hatch on the wall, pressed the button on the ball and dropped it in before sealing the hatch.

" _Order. Space it."_ He said before opening another crate.

" _And if they are not organic?"_ Sail asked, now understanding the first part of Stonewire's plan.

" _Unnerving. Then they'll be wishing they were."_ He stated as he pulled out his blue lancer helm. If he wanted to survive this, he needed to plan on the move.

* * *

The Krogan was getting his boarding team ready when he received a call on his omni-tool. He answered.

" _Vruk, we contacted the ship. Their vessel has sustained a lot of damage, I'm surprised it's even space worthy. Either way, we're sure they can hear us but something's wrong on their end. We've requested that they open the cargo bay and allow us entry. Their weapons seem to be disabled as there is no heat coming from them. This frigate is unlike any ship I've seen so be careful. If they don't open willingly, blow a hole into the cargo hold."_ The Batarian voice said in his ear piece.

"Understood." Vruk said as he ended the call and pointed at a group of six Batarians," You ready? Better be, we're moving now." Vruk ordered.

The Batarians and Vruk boarded the shuttle and flew out of their hangar. Outside Vruk could see the frigate they were going to board.

The first odd thing he noticed was the stone that layered over the obviously well reinforced metal. The second thing was just how much damage there was. Pieces of debris were scattered around the vessel. Most of what seemed heavily damaged looked repaired to some degree. Vruk doesn't see it being fixed completely anytime soon but it seemed still capable. The ship seemed to be a human vessel if he had to guess.

They waited near the end of the ship waiting for the hangar to open. A moment passed and Vruk was getting impatient.

Vruk went up to the pilot's side, "Try to contact them."

The Batarian pilot pressed a few buttons on his holographic controls before a new screen appears.

"This is a response to you ships s.o.s. In order to assess the situation we will need to board your vessel." The pilot lied.

A minute passed and Vruk was ready to just blow open the hangar. Right as he was about to give the order the hangar opened. Vruk would have been pleased, if his gut wasn't telling him this was some kind of trap. Whoever aboard was stalling for time. He went back to the other Batarians.

"Everyone arm yourselves. These Pyjaks are up to something and I don't want them to get the drop on us." He ordered.

* * *

' _That was too close'_ Stonewire thought to himself from his vantage point at the back of the hangar. He fitted himself with his blue lancer armor, shaded darker for his more stealth based contracts, a dagger strapped to his lower back, a short sword strapped to his hip, a pistol strapped to the other side, a rifle magnetically locked to his back, a few differently colored balls around his waist, and an ammo sash around his shoulder looping down to his waist.

He should have expected a different language but life with a translator made it easy to forget. Luckily the language was close to the Hylotl tongue and Sail was able to decipher it. The shuttle flew in and landed exactly where he planned.

The side opened upward letting out seven armored creatures, too many to be here to help. Stonewire wasn't surprised they were armed. What did was that they are not like any aliens he's seen.

The biggest one with a large hump on its back seemed to lead the group. The human like ones had four eyes. Stonewire found it strange none of them wore helmets. He would have to find those answers later. Stonewire made his way towards the shuttle behind the group. As he did he quickly typed a message to Sail.

" _Wait for my signal then activate it."_

Not waiting for a response Stonewire slipped into the shuttle and found this way to the cockpit. Looking inside he could see the pilot messing with the holographic controls. Without hesitation Stonewire closed his offhand around the alien's mouth, unsheathed his straight twelve inch dagger and shoved it into its chest three times aiming for vitals consistent to the races he knows.

The alien was completely caught off guard and made little in the way of resistance after the second stab. He would have to examine the aliens later to take care of them cleaner next time. Looking over the consoles it seemed that there was no windows on the front so there was a holographic screen showing the outside.

He could see the big alien pointing the others forward towards his trap. The human ones were just within range of the teleporter and Stonewire readied to send them to a cold death.

The big one suddenly stopped and turned back toward the shuttle. Its lips curled, baring its teeth as it seemed to smell the air. Stonewire sheathed his knife and typed another message.

" _Activate it now and scramble their communication."_ He was pretty sure the big guy could smell the blood.

As soon as the message was sent a flash of light filled the hangar. The alien turned around to see nothing but the armor and weapons of his allies. It immediately activated a device on its wrist and started speaking in its language before looking frustrated. In its obvious rage it started firing on the shuttle.

Stonewire thought it was crazy. He quickly jumped out of the shuttle and felt some rounds fly past before taking cover behind some crates. As he was taking his rifle off his back he could hear the behemoth moving closer and shouting what he thought were slurs at him as it was firing its shotgun at him.

Stonewire check his ammo by pressing a button next to the trigger opening a small chamber on the side with a white cylinder inside. He pressed the button again closing the chamber before peeking out and shooting a fire plasma round right into its face.

Right when the plasma was about to make contact, a field of energy surrounded the creature's body. The force of the shot was enough to knock the humpback back a few steps. The shot itself seemed ineffective but bits of flame licked its skin. It smothered the fire away as it took aim again. Stonewire moved to further away cover, he did not want to see what this thing could do at close range.

"You think you'll survive this Pyjak. I'll rip you open and eat you raw!" The humpback threatened.

Stonewire guessed that Sail got a translator off their shuttle's computer. Not that he thinks diplomacy is going to help at this moment. So he opted for his grenades and pulled out a green sphere, pressed a single button on it and tossed it over.

As the grenade landed at the brutes feet he looked down as the gas released. The gas started to fill the area around the creature. To Stonewire's surprise it just huffed.

"You think your toxins will work on me! I am Krogan!" It shouted, releasing more rounds into Stone's cover.

Stonewire hypothesized that the Krogan had some kind of shielding around it. He knew that from how the others dressed that it probably protects the whole body. If that was true, only things that travel as fast as a bullet could trigger it. Unless the guy he stabbed didn't have one, only one way to find out.

" _Sarcastic. Noted."_ Stonewire replied as he blinked behind the Krogan.

Stonewire, now behind the behemoth, pulled out his dagger thrusts the blade right above the hip.

Stonewire would have been happy knowing that the barrier it used wouldn't affect his knifes, if it wasn't for the fact that wherever this thing came from it had the skin of an adult Poptop.

The blade didn't seem to penetrate the skin. The beast noticed him and backhanded him a few feet back. Stonewire was really regretting this whole week.

Landing on his back he tried to get back up before a large foot found its place on his chest. Looking up he saw the Krogan leaning over him.

"I'll admit, you move fast but you fight like a coward, so you'll die like one." The Krogan growled out.

The monster pumped its shotgun before bringing the barrel down to Stonewire's head. Right when he was about to pull the trigger Stonewire disappeared into a blue flash and appeared above the giant. This offset the Krogan before a sharp pain met his eye.

The Krogan threw the Glitch off its back. Stonewire landed on his feet facing the now enraged Krogan. This thing Stonewire was fighting was unlike anything he's ever fought. He can only think of one weapon that could get under that hide. Now only if he could remembered where he put it.

The Krogan seemed to have lost its mind as it roared and charged at the glitch with the dagger still in its eye. Stonewire quickly blinked away and started opening the crates in front of him.

' _Nope, not here.'_ He thought as another crate flew past his head.

Great, now the Krogan was throwing his stuff around. Good or bad news was that it finally took the dagger out its eye. Not that he really wanted to ask for it back.

Stonewire then blinked to another crate. When he opened it he found something he wasn't expecting.

" _Confused. A gnome?"_

It wasn't just the gnome but the fact that it was the only thing in the crate, by itself with its hands held out.

" _Banter. Say hello to my little friend."_ He said as he threw the gnome at the Krogan, only to see it harmlessly bounce off its face.

"I'm going to beat you to death with your own arms!" The Krogan yelled.

Stonewire blinked out again as the Krogan fired at him. The next crate he found had a combination lock on it. He didn't even know if this was the right crate. He put the combination in quickly as the Krogan threw what looked like a discus at him.

Before Stonewire could blink, the disc exploded, throwing him across the hangar. Whatever that grenade did, it short circuited his armor, he was honestly glad that was all it did. The Krogan made its way past the crate and towards Stonewire.

Stonewire could see that the crate was now ajar. His HUD told him that his armors energy was low. If he waited long enough to blink to the crate, the contents would probably be the last thing he saw if he was wrong.

Before he could get fully to his feet he felt something lift him by his shoulder and shove him into the wall of the hangar.

"You killed my crew, I'll give you that! But that means I can't let you live! Let's see how well your armor holds up to a Krogan!"

' _Creators, does this thing ever stop yelling?'_ Stonewire thought ' _ten seconds.'_

Stonewire felt his feet leave the ground as he was dragged up against the wall. The Krogan brought its fist back before slamming it into Stone's sternum.

His armor held under the force of the swing but he knew it wouldn't hold up to much more. The Krogan's fist drew back once again.

' _Six seconds.'_

This time he felt his armor buckle as the fist connected. The pain was close to bearable. Stonewire couldn't reach his sword even if he thought it could do anything.

' _Three seconds.'_

The Krogan roared as it brought its fist back. ' _Two.'_ Stonewire could see the rage in its eye, in a way it was so pure. ' _One.'_ The living tanks arm came barreling towards him. Stonewire almost felt sorry, ' _zero.'_ that he would be the one to snuff it out.

Right as the Krogan's fury was about to make contact with the Glitch's frame he blinked out of its grasp.

As Stonewire appeared next to the crate he threw it open and happily pulled out the biggest of guns.

The Doomcannon, a weapon no man should have. He took aim at the giant as it turned around to face him. He fired what appeared to be a grenade.

The Krogan brought its arms in front of its face to guard against the explosion. Only when it did hit him, all it did was release a thick smoke.

The Krogan let his arms down as he stared wide eyed at the Glitch and started laughing.

"You don't listen well! Your poison won't work on me!" It hollered.

The Glitch said nothing as he dropped the Doomcannon and drew his durasteel sword. Pressing a button on the pommel the blade began to glow red.

"Not gonna run anymore! Nice to see you've grown some quads!" It shouted.

" _Eerie. That's right, just keep breathing, for it shall be thy last breath"_ Stonewire said.

Not waiting for a reply, Stonewire stepped forward still outside of the smoke and swung his blade. The smoke almost seemed to sizzle as the heated blade moved through it. Suddenly the the smoke ignited and exploded. This sent Stonewire across the hangar once more.

He didn't really anticipate the explosion being that large. Standing up he saw that the Doomcannon was in ruin. Stone didn't really care as it was a very unpredictable weapon and the micro bombs were hard to produce.

Looking over to the Krogan all he saw was what seemed to be just a torso with a missing head, hump and open chest.

He sheathed his sword, retrieved his dagger and grabbed one of the suits the four eyes were wearing and went to the shuttle.

" _You're lucky you have me."_ Sail stated inside his helms comms.

Stonewire kept moving as he talked. " _Annoyed. What help were you when I was fighting the living tank."_

" _Oh, you know, keeping the ship outside from blasting us into bits."_

Now he was curious. " _Inquiry. And how exactly did you do that?"_

" _The shuttle was connected to the main cruiser and all that stood in my way was a VI. They noticed their naked comrades outside and started powering their weapons. Sad to say it took longer than I would have hoped but I'm now connected to the weapons and surveillance systems. They are currently 'running around like chickens with their heads cut off' as the humans would say. Give me a minute and I can get control of life support."_ Sail said the last part coldly.

" _Proud. You did fine, Haven't needed you to hack into something in a long time. Troubled. Now that we know that they are slavers do you know if they have any currently?"_

" _Yes, if you are careful and I don't space any I'm sure we can lower the mortality rate...for the humans."_

Stonewire was removing pieces of tech from the armor and looking over the shuttle's controls. The holograms were the only weird thing he would have to deal with as the rest of the controls were similar enough. Not that he was planning on flying it.

" _Order. Get the VI to fly us back to the hanger and work on their life support. Sincere. Let's try to save the humans if we can."_ He said, putting his hand on his chest he could feel the microbots reconstructing what the Krogan broke.

" _Understood. Using their feed I've deducted that there are currently three-hundred and forty-three aboard that are not in cells. When I get control I will be able to lower this by a margin of ninety percent."_

" _confused. Weird amount of crew."_

" _You killed seven of them."_

" _Realization. Oh."_ He said as the door of the shuttle closed.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **What a fight**

 **I really enjoyed writing the fight between the Krogan and Stonewire**

 **I know I said the chapters wouldn't be as long but I just can't help myself**

 **By now I think most would want to see Commander Shephard but I want to build on this OC a bit**

 **Too many stories in my opinion just kind of throw their characters into Shephard's lap and I don't want that with this story**

 **Leave a review if you want**

 **Follow if you like**


	3. The Arrival

**Starbound is owned by Chucklefish**

 **Mass Effect is owned by Bioware**

 **But you knew that already**

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" _Inquire. How many in the hangar?"_ Stonewire asked as he attached the pieces he took of the four eye's suit to his wrist mounted manipulator.

Stonewire wasn't sure of the technology of the shield but it all came from a small emitter. Just like his manipulator he was able to connect the emitter to his armor's self-recharging energy supply. It took a bit out of his energy but once the shield was charged his energy started refilling. He's not sure how well it will hold up but he wouldn't rely on it as he would need the energy for his tech abilities.

" _There are thirty-two currently in the hangar. There is some kind of kinetic airlock to keep the air in. I've locked them in and will disable the barrier on your go."_ Sail explained.

As the ship's hangar opened Stonewire could see the barrier Sail was talking about. Past it he could see many armored looking figures running around, taking cover and preparing for his boarding. He even saw a few Krogan, not that there was anyway he was going to go into another somewhat-fair fight with them.

" _One more thing before you go. It seems one of the prisoners of this vessel took advantage of my interfering and has armed themselves."_ Sail informed.

" _Practical. Do what you can to assist but if they try anything rash do what you need to."_

" _Like attacking a slaver's cruiser without any kind of assistance?"_ Sail retorted.

" _Grateful. They don't have you, Sail. Apathetic. Show them the way out."_ Stonewire said as he readied his rifle.

The barrier dissipated and anything that wasn't locked down flew out into the coldness of space.

" _Impersonal. Time to clean house."_

* * *

He couldn't believe what was happening. Find out of the collectors had anything to do with the abductions and report back to Cerberus. They were careful, no one should have known they were even out here.

Didn't help that his fellow security got stupid and tried to fight the slavers when they boarded and now here he was. He was being taken down the the 'doctor' but something happened causing a lot of the guards to leave the prisoner area and his 'escort' was told to take him back to his cell.

He took full advantage and managed to wrestle the guards gun from him and put him down. He could have released the other prisoners but he panicked, took the Batarians omni-tool and ran when he heard more guards.

Now he was trying to find a way to the ship's communications room. He wasn't sure who was attacking the slavers but it sure as hell wasn't a rescue. If he could make it there he might be able to send a steganographic message to Cerberus. Not like any other ship would come out here of its own free will if they knew.

As he made his way down the hall he met little resistance, a few stray Batarians that didn't see him coming. If he had to be honest, he's almost sure that the Illusive Man had probably marked them as a 'necessary loss', but at this point he had to try something.

As he finally made it to a split in the hall he tried to open the door to his right with the omni-tool only to receive an error. Something was wrong but he didn't have time to figure that out. He quickly tried the other door.

He breathed a sigh as the door opened but soon grew silent when on the other side of the door was a group of Batarians and a Krogan.

The Krogan noticed him first and started running towards him only for the door to close. He took a few steps back as the door's holographic lock went from green to red just as a loud crash shook the door.

All of a sudden he heard the door behind him hiss as it slide open, causing him to spin around with his pistol ready. Only there was nothing behind him but an empty hallway. He wasn't sure what to do. Whoever or whatever was controlling the doors was either trying to kill him and failing miserably or they were trying to lead him.

He really didn't know which was worse. At this point he noticed a camera looking directly at him. Before he could do anything else his omni-tool turned on without his input. A message was written across the screen of the omni-tool.

" _I have control over many of the functions of this craft, I would recommend not moving any further as hostile presence will increase. But if you insist on continuing your journey tell me where it is you are trying to reach and I will lead you there as safely as I can."_

He decided listening to his unknown ally for now would work in his favor. He didn't really have any other options, if this person had access to the doors, him running around without them knowing where he was going was only going to stall him. He tried to type a response but the control seemed frozen. Just as he began to get frustrated a new message appeared.

" _I can see and hear everything. Look up."_

The camera, he didn't really know what he expected but he probably should have seen that coming.

Sail looked at the Human through the lens of the camera. Sail was quite honestly surprised by how plain this Human looked. She hasn't met that many sure, but she still had many references from the software she's been through.

Brown eyes, short dark hair, sharp chin, tanned skin, and medium build. She was getting distracted. She noticed that the Human's heart rate was picking up. The branded omni-tool around the Human's wrist would keep her notified on his condition. Before she could send another message the Human spoke.

"I need to get to the comms room." He was almost too quiet for the microphones to pick up.

He stood there for what felt like forever tell a new message came to his omni-tool

" _A friend of mine will meet you there. He wears blue armor, try not to shoot him."_

He didn't really see how he could screw that up as all of the slavers wore red armor. Still as far as armor goes, blue is probably on the list of least intimidating colors.

* * *

Stonewire walked with his magnetic lightly locked soles on his feet through the now lifeless cargo hold. He held his rifle in both hands as he made it to one of the doors.

The door slid open to reveal an empty hall that he went halfway down before the door behind him closed.

" _Oh."_ Was all he heard over his comms.

" _Concern. I don't like it when you do that."_ Stone stated.

" _I've taken care of the VI but it seems that someone more skilled doesn't want me here. I still have the most control of the doors, the security and the ship's weapons but he's locked me out of life support and other systems. Plan B?"_ She asked.

" _Agree. Plan B."_

" _Are you sure it's a good idea to let him loose?"_ Sail questioned.

" _chastise. He has a name Sail, don't play the pronoun game."_ He said as he locked his rifle to his back and pulled a transparent ball with a blue core from his belt.

" _I refuse to call him Fluffy"_ Sail said displeased.

The next door opened to what Stonewire guessed was an elevator.

" _In order to end this quickly I recommend that we go to their communication hub as that seems to be where the one keeping me out is. It seems the Human also wants to go there. What do you suggest?"_ Sail asked.

" _Order. Lead him there and I will make my way there."_ With that he now stood in the elevator and without touching anything the door closed.

" _Inquire. What floor?"_ He asked as the elevator began to move.

" _I'm sending you to the fifth floor which happens to be their cafeteria. Since I was unable to gain control of the system-"_ She said bitterly " _there is sixty-three current occupants armed and waiting. Good news is that thirty percent do not have their armor and are only armed with some low grade firearms."_ She stopped when the elevator jolted but kept moving.

" _Very annoying."_ She huffed. " _Either way I suggest releasing 'Plan B' as a distraction, allowing you to move unhindered to our destination. The sooner you can get there the faster I can clear them out."_ She finished.

" _Annoyed. How in the span of all that time are we only at the third floor. impatient. If all the elevators in this galaxy are this slow I'll die of boredom."_ He said while pulling a gray ball from his belt.

* * *

They were prepared, all guns focused on the door. They knew that the attacker could only come from the elevator. Sail knew that as well, so in the same sense everyone was prepared, but only one side knew that.

She watched as the four eyed ones flipped tables as makeshift cover and the few Krogans took up the front lines with their shotguns at the ready. She let Stonewire know to take cover at the corner of the elevator door and begun marking the targets while updating Stone's helmet visor with the info.

In all honesty this was her first real mission with Stonewire. Sure, she's helped him on plenty of missions but she's never really been there. That was what the wrist manipulator was for, to let her see through his eyes and hack just about anything.

This was also her first time dealing with so much at once. First she had to make sure Stonewire knew where he was going, then she had to make sure the Human wouldn't get themselves killed and lastly she needed to keep the aliens from regaining complete control of the ship. It was so exhilarating to her.

The elevator door finally opened with a cloud of smoke pushing through. It only took a second before every gun in the room was unloaded through the smoke and into the elevator. The smoke slowly made its way towards the cover of the four eyes.

The gunfire soon stopped as one of the Krogan threw his arm up and called a ceasefire. The Krogan stood at the edge of the smoke, it almost seemed to be trying to swallow the Krogan. Before the Krogan could take a step something bumped into his foot causing him to look down.

Sail knew this to be a capture pod, Fluffy's little home. The Krogan had no time to react as the ball disappeared in a blast of light. Now standing in its place was a creature larger than the Krogan that stood in front of it. Sail was sure that she heard the Krogan squeal as the lumbering monster swung its three clawed hand into him sending him flying across the room like a stone.

It let out a deep roar that shook the room as it charged towards the line of tipped tables. If Sail had to guess this was probably their first time seeing an adult Poptop. She was not surprised that they were having a hard time trying to penetrate its hide, She has never understood why such a creature needed to evolve with hide like that on forest planets, it took thirty men including Stone to take it down for capture.

In the chaos Sail saw Stonewire move through the smoke. The reason no one else noticed him was pretty obvious, smoke and a really big animal would hold anyone's attention. She marked the door that Stone needed to go through on his hud and kept doing what she's been doing, erasing Stonewire from the live camera feed, the same thing she was doing for the Human. Probably one of the least appreciated things she could do.

' _Not that the Poptop was useless'_ She thought as the one in question ripped a Krogan in half from the waist.

* * *

He hasn't received a new message in a while and he was starting to worry. He was feeling a lot safer, mostly because he hadn't ran into any opposition. Whoever was leading him was keeping to their word but now he was in front of a locked door and if the signs he saw were correct then he was standing in front of the communication room's door.

He tried sending a message like last time but the screen was still frozen and he tried to get their attention through the camera but no response. With his Omni-tool being the way it was he wouldn't be able to hack the door and even if he could he was sure that it was guarded.

Just as he was about to give up he felt something grip his shoulder, he's training took over as he spun around aiming his pistol only to feel his wrist get pulled and getting flipped on his back.

The pistol was torn from his grip and was aimed down at him by a dark blue armored person and a barely glowing red visor. About a thousand question were going through his head like how he snuck up on him, but at that moment he wanted to stop anything physical from going through it.

"Whoa man, I was supposed to meet you here! I didn't hear you comin-" his sentence was cut short as the armored man let go of his wrist and covered his mouth.

The armored person locked the pistol to his side and held a single finger up to where his mouth would be. He nodded his head and the hand was removed from his mouth.

The person held out his hand and helped him to his feet. He then pointed at his Omni-tool.

" _What is your name?"_ Was written on it.

"Tripp Severn." He whispered.

The armor that the guy was wearing looked pretty Human for the most part. Unlike normal armor though it looked more plated than padded. Tripp swears it came straight from an old holo-vid, a knight in shining armor. Not really shining as it was covered in dents, scrapes and from what he could tell, Krogan blood. If he had to guess, the knights emitter was most likely broken in an explosion.

The knight unlocked the pistol before walking to the sealed door.

"You know I think it would be better if we were both armed." Tripp said.

The knight turned towards him and too his surprise the visor was no longer red but instead was two blue lights where the eyes were.

' _Must be some kind of combat visor.'_ He thought to himself.

" _He does have a point Stone."_ Sail said through his helmets comms.

" _He's not going to be of any use here, too slow. Besides, you said that the ones inside don't have these emitters, best that he stays out of my way and I don't waste my ammo on unshielded targets."_ Stonewire without looking quickly typed onto his wrist manipulator while receiving curious looks from Tripp.

" _Do you even know how their weapons work?" Sail asked._

" _No, that's what you are for." He typed._

Tripp wasn't sure about what the knight was doing but after messing with his primitive looking Omni-tool he hovered the pistol over it as a light moved across the gun. He noticed the Knight was carrying a strange arsenal.

The rifle and pistol on his back and hip was something he expected but they didn't look like any he's seen. Then there was the real oddities like the sword and dagger strapped to his side and lower back, Tripp's only seen Cerberus Phantom units with swords.

After what Tripp assumed was a scan the knight pulled back the slide of the pistol to reveal the heat sink before releasing it back in place and pulling one of the golf sized balls off his belt. The knight pressed a single button on the ball causing half of it to open up into a claw which he stuck to the far right of the door before backing away as he waved for Tripp to do the same.

Tripp didn't like the idea of being unarmed, but if this guy was able to fight his way here then by all means the knight could take point.

Then one of the most bizarre things happened. The area around the ball begun to fall in on itself as if the ball was pulling it in. It wasn't slow either, within a second there was now a beach ball size hole in the wall and the ball fell to the floor.

"What the-" Someone's voice from the other side started shouting but ended with a single shot.

Tripp looked back to see the knight aiming with one hand before he disappeared in a flash of blue light. More gunshots were heard and shouting from the Batarians. The door suddenly opened but he couldn't hear anything else.

Tripp slowly crept through the door and peeked off the side to see multiple Batarian corpses either lying on the floor or dead in their seats. Standing of to the side was the knight with a unarmed Batarian's neck in his grasp. The batarians tried to pull the knight's wrist free before the knight brought the pistol up to the batarians face and sending three rounds into it.

Tripp slowly made his way into the room trying not to gain any unwanted attention, the knight killed at least ten batarians in less than a minute. The knight tossed the body away before going over one of the consoles. This was his chance, if he contacted The Illusive Man and informed him on this knight's tech, his chances of rescue would rise.

" _I have bad news and good news."_ Sail informed Stonewire.

" _Optimist. Good news first."_ Stonewire said in a lower tone knowing that the Human was at a good distance behind him.

He could have opened up with talking to him but from his past it's not recommended to show your whole hand in one turn. Besides, he needed to make sure that the aliens didn't see him coming, element of surprise and all that.

" _I have complete control of the systems and have started decompressing multiple rooms."_ Sail answered.

" _Worried. Bad news?"_

" _Two pieces of bad I'm sorry to say... Fluffy didn't make it."_

Stonewire didn't say anything but instead stood a bit taller and put his right fist to his chest.

' _A warrior's death.'_ Stonewire thought.

He lost a lot of hired guns to capture that beast but he still respected it.

" _Next is that I can't bring the number of hostiles down to a safe level without taking a large number of the slaves with them."_

Stonewire was no stranger to casualties and he's almost sure his old self would have done it without batting an eye, but he did.

" _Concern. Are you sure there is no other way?"_ He hopelessly asked.

" _You know I looked but you've deployed just about every over the top tactic that didn't get spaced when we got here."_ She responded apologetically.

He knew it, if there was another way Sail would have found it. He didn't even bother with the computer. He was considering his options, he wasn't sure if this galaxy would accept the 'Crimson King'. If they did, he's pretty sure killing a bunch of Humans on day two would not sit well. If he didn't he would have to be more careful as to not get himself killed and maybe arm himself with more of their weapons as to not waste ammo for his weapons without know if he could replicate them.

Before he could ask Sail to find him a map she spoke first.

" _Stop Tripp!"_ She shouted.

Instead of being disoriented from the sudden volume or asking questions he moved swiftly.

" _This is Sergeant Tripp Severn of Project Skywatchers, attached to this message is our coordinates. Our ship was attacked by slavers and I expect we have a traitor amongst us. Our ship was destroyed and we have been taken aboard their ship. There are still hostiles aboard this vessel but we have received assistance from an unknown. While there has been no sign of collectors this unknown possesses advance tech unlike anything we've seen. This technology could be used to advance Cerberus's ends."_

Tripp finished typing out the message standing but before he could send it he felt a sudden force against the side of his knee bending and breaking it, he shouted in pain as he fell face first onto the ground.

Before he could react he was grabbed and roughly dragged across the room before being set up against a wall. The knight was now looming over him with his pistol held out towards Tripp's head.

"God dammit! We are on the same side, shit you broke my leg!" He shouted.

" _Inquire. What is Cerberus?"_ The knight spoke.

This was the first time Tripp as heard the knight speak and the first thing he noticed was that its sentence started the same way an Elcor's did, the second thing he notices was just how cold and robotic it sounded but none of that drew his attention as much as the red visor looking down on him.

"I don't know any-!" He started to shout with what honor he had left.

" _Annoyed! Shut it!"_ The knight said at a higher volume.

Tripp kept his mouth shut as the knight seemed to lose interest in him but there was only one thing he could think about. How did he find out he was with Cerberus? Sure he had the uniform but the knight showed no interest until Tripp was done with the message. He asked what Cerberus is so he had no clue what their symbol was so he must have saw the message. Everything started to click, the doors the cameras even the odd silence.

It's an AI.

He could feel his heart beating faster and as if it noticed its attention was back on him. Tripp looked around for any kind of escape and saw a dead Batarian with its pistol near by and started dragging himself towards it.

" _Plead. Don't do it."_ it said.

He got a hold of the pistol and turned towards the looming robot, he hopes he was right about its barrier. He raised the gun up to the AI.

" _Mercy. I'm giving you a chance. Request. Put it down."_ It said as it lowered its weapon and its visor turned blue.

Tripp didn't trust this thing for one second and fired four times. Each round hit the barrier around him leaving it unharmed. In an instant its visor returned back to its red visage. He tried to fire again only to hear a hissing click. In one fell swoop the AI lifted its pistol and sent a single round through Tripp's head.

A silence fell upon the room.

" _I have a new plan if you wish to hear it."_ Sail said trying to move their minds to something more productive.

" _Sullen. He wouldn't listen. Certain. I was too aggressive."_ He said as he tossed the pistol away and went over to the console the Human was using.

" _AI's are illegal here, they most likely fear us... From what I could gather they use a very different currency, more digital. I know this is thinking a bit far ahead but I think we could use Cerberus."_

" _Doubtful. Using a pro-Human group to get paid sound like a good way to get killed. Enforce. We need to help these Humans first."_ Stonewire protested.

" _It's not the pro-Human part I'm looking at and I think we can do both. From what I found on the team's Omni-tools they were working on 'Project Skywatchers'. A group meant to keep an eye out for something known as the Collectors but this all adds up to something else. Though I can't find it in the codex they are fighting something that attacked here before, something known as a Reaper."_

" _Inquire. And why would this interest us?"_

" _We've seen them."_

As she said that a screen appeared above the console with what appeared to be a blurred image.

" _When we jumped I recorded something that bothered me but it didn't seem important at the time. They called these ships Reapers and they seem to be the cause of alarm."_

The image started to clear up revealing multiple squid like vessels ranging from just four legs to six. Ships like that look like they could do a bit of damage.

" _We know where they'll come from if they are coming here and we have there numbers."_ Sail said as she brought up extended info on their numbers and location in the dark space.

" _Indifferent. This helps us little in the way off getting off this ship or helping the Humans aboard."_ Stonewire stated.

" _We could sell this information, it seems that the Humans don't really have that much data on them. I've cloak our ship and have sent the shuttle to pick up a few essentials. When they come you will have to be armed with their weapons and talk to them through the Omni-tool as your voice would give you away, so pick one off of anyone here and I will configure it. As soon as we are payed and the problem is taken care off we can either cut our losses and find a place to hold up or..." She paused._

" _Impressed. Or offer our services for further payment. Ponder. That could work, don't like the idea of working with people who barely trust each other but I could work with that. Hope. It's also the only way that most of these Humans don't die horrible. Defensive. If they betray us, we'll be ready."_ Stonewire said.

" _So all we need to do is change this message and send it."  
_

 _"Inquire. I know that you're fast but during warp?"  
_

 _"I didn't have anything better to do and we were in that warp for a good amount of time. So I just increased my processing speed to match the warp."_

 _"confused. But wasn't half your software burned away?"_

 _"Scanners and some of the exterior cams suffered little damage."_

Stonewire knew that she was good but it seemed she got a little better, not that he was complaining.

Stonewire rewrote the message in hopes that these Humans might be a bit more civil.

" _Inquire. Do we have time?"_ Stonewire asked as he finished typing out the last of the message.

" _They have tried to blast through the doors and some have succeeded until they run into the next set. I've estimated it will take them thirty-six hours to make it anywhere worth wild."_

Good, now all he had to do was make it back to the hangar.

0o0o0o0

"But first go to freedom's progress. Find any clues you can. Who's abducting the colonies? Do they have any connection to the Reapers? I brought you back. It's up to you to do the rest." The Illusive Man said, ending the call.

He was taking a large gamble bringing shephard back but he was sure that if anyone could stop the abductions, it was her.

As he took another drag from his cigar he noticed an update message labeled as Project Skywatchers.

" _This is the Crimson King. I know of the Reapers that plague you and have data that could help further your cause. If you wish to receive this you must come to this location and rid this slave ship of its filth. As soon as these conditions have been met we will discuss further business. Many of your fellow men have been captured by these slavers and I have gained control of the vessel's many functions so boarding will be of no issue. I only wish to help but you must meet me halfway."_

The Illusive Man expected an update from them days ago but this explained everything. If this new piece on the board had information on the Reapers it would be worth at least sending a cruiser to check it out. The only thing that bothered him was how much this person knew. If they got a hold of any Omni-tool from the crew it wouldn't have been as much information as it seems to think it knows.

He calls himself the Crimson King. The king of blood, a strange title but if it was earned than the team he sends will have to take precautions.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **Getting real close now**

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	4. The Job

**You know the deal**

 **Starbound is owned by Chucklefish**

 **Mass Effect is owned by Bioware**

 **Now to what you care about**

 **01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101010 01101111 01100010**

Stonewire made his way back to the hangar, luckily Sail informed him that Fluffy pretty much cleared the cafeteria. The place was a complete wreck. If this was his first time seeing such a massacre he's sure he would have lost his lunch.

After clearing the room of the few wounded batarians Stone went over to give Fluffy one last goodbye. That's when he noticed that Fluffy was still kicking. The big guy took a lot of hits and his breathing was slow but all Stone had to do was stick him back into the capture pod. As soon as Fluffy entered the pod the center piece that originally was blue was now red.

He wasn't surprised, big guy took on twice the amount it took to take him down. Hopefully the healing process wouldn't be too long, plan B has always been a nice choice.

He got back to the hangar with no interruptions. He found the shuttle he arrived in and went inside. Originally it looked like it could fit about six people but as Sail said she sent it back to pick up some essentials. Now it looked like it had enough room for him and maybe a few others if they squeezed in, but he was able to access all the crates.

" _Sarcastic. Sure you didn't forget my coffee mug?"_ He said as he opened the closest crate and put his equipment into it.

" _Very funny, I used the remote device to move anything that may be needed including rations. I expect we won't be seeing our ship for a while, not without fuel at least."_

" _Encourage. I'm sure this galaxy has some variant of Erchius, all we have to do is keep an eye out for it."_ He said now pulling a towel with a small box out of another crate and started taking off his armor.

" _Well, while you're cleaning up I'm going to modify the video feeds. The humans will undoubtedly want to look over what happened here. Don't want them to know that you put down one of their sergeants."_

" _Agree. That would be a bad second impression."_

The armor he wore fit perfectly around his clothes so that he wouldn't have to waste time switching. The blood was easy to remove as the material was hard to stain.

" _Stone, may I ask you something?"_ Sail asked sheepishly.

" _Permit. You may."_ He answered as he pulled some tools from the box.

" _Why did you mention The Crimson King? You've never really shown any interest in the name they gave you."_

Stonewire started removing the dented plates with his tools. The best thing in his opinion was how if the metal was bent that you could bend it back in place and it would not be weakened. Sense it has no coating, when he did undo the damage it looked like it never received the blow. Scratches were harder to remove but that mattered little over protection.

" _Explain. Needed a name and from just how things are ending up I suppose I thought it seemed appropriate. Contemplate. I don't think I'll ever get to escape that name but at the very least I can change what it stands for."_

He begun to put the now fixed plates back into his armor. Stonewire hated the idea of being a king, but at the same time it helped him gain notoriety. Hell, they even had stories.

There once was a king.  
A king with no throne nor crown.  
The king ruled neither people nor land.  
His hands are dirty for he cleans the soil

and waters the crops with the blood that follows.  
The king held no title but they gave him one by respect and fear.  
The Crimson King.

Funny thing was that one came before him. He wasn't the first Crimson King, not even the second. He just hopes that there aren't any with the same name here or this was going to get awkward.

* * *

A few hours have past and nothing of real note happened. Some of the slavers tried to blow their way out only to not notice that Sail was filling their room with explosive gas. Not enough to remove the room but enough to discourage anyone after the guy standing too close lost a few eyes.

Some even tried to hack their way through. Sail didn't appreciate that and gave them a bit of a shock. If she had to babysit for another hour she was going to delete this part of her memory just to stay sane.

She and stone knew that she could pilot the ship but they didn't want to risk flying around in a slaver vessel. Sail did try to pass the time going through the codex but after the two-hundred and fifth time it got kind of dull and Stonewire wanted to go through it himself unless he needed her.

So she tried to figure out who The Illusive Man is. She couldn't find a name but found out that he founded Cerberus.

Assassination, experimentation and sabotage was not below them apparently. Not that Stonewire wasn't guilty of some horrid things so she really couldn't judge personality. Of course the only information she got on them seemed public and if this galaxy was anything like theirs then there was bound to be more 'under the rug' but digging seemed like a bad idea for now.

That's when she noticed an approaching vessel. If information served than this was a Cerberus cruiser. Not a minute passed before they hailed them.

0o0o0o0

Stonewire finished dismantling the pistol the Human was using. After looking at the mass accelerated weapon he noticed that it seemed to use what Sail told him was a thermal clip. It absorbs the heat that would build up in the gun and they could pop in a new one when too much heat was absorbed.

Switching the fire type of his crossbow caused immediate heat build up in the ammunition itself. If he could put some of the clip's tech with the crossbow he could slow or even stop that build up.

Just as he finished putting the pistol back together Sail called him.

" _We have guest. They have requested entry."_

" _Excited. We better not keep them waiting."_ He said before putting his crossbow away and closing the shuttle behind him.

" _Remember to breath."_ Sail reminded Stone.

" _Lively. Show time."_ Stonewire said as he took up his position.

* * *

Olivia was not liking the situation. It was too easy and quite honestly too covenant. They happen to be the closest cruiser and the ship happens to be a batarian slave vessel. There was also the fact that she expected to see two crafts and not one craft with a lot of spaced bodies. Yeah, nothing could go wrong with that mix up.

What really bothered her was when they tried to communicate with the supposed 'Crimson King'. They didn't even talk, just sent them a message to send a shuttle or two to clear the remaining slavers and rescue their 'cargo'. She decided three would be more suitable as a show of power.

She brought up her computer to watch the team through their helmets. The first shuttle went in as a scout and the first thing they saw was a blue armored man that she suspected was the King. He was leaning against another shuttle seemingly waiting for them.

As soon as the her teams shuttle opened they exited guns raised. Two of them had their firearms on the blue guy as the other three cleared the hangar. There was a few dead batarians around the hangar.

Every corner of the hangar was cleared and the other shuttles soon joined them. She didn't like how comfortable the King was. Arms crossed like he has the whole situation under control, the only visible weapon on him was the pistol on his side.

The two more heavily armed teams moved further into the ship, she had faith it wouldn't take them too long to find the prisoners.

The first team stayed behind to secure the hangar incase anything happened. Foreman, the team leader moved up to the King, still as calm as could be.

"Are you King?" The leader asked.

The man then brought his wrist up, activating his omni-tool. Foreman instantly raised his rifle up to him.

"Stop!" He commanded.

The King lazily lifted his arms up in surrender. Before Foreman could say anything else the King pointed to his throat. Great, they were dealing with a mute.

"Watch him carefully." Olivia warned.

"Don't do anything you'll regret." Foreman told him.

Stonewire found it funny that these Humans thought they had some type of chance. He wouldn't even need to touch a button for this to turn into an airless venture, but doing that would put him at risk if they decided to blow the ship before he got off it.

He quickly typed out a message and sent it.

" _Took your time. Information is as expensive as time. I recommend getting to the prisoners and getting them out before blowing this ship to hell. Then we can talk about very dangerous aliens. I will be bringing my shuttle."_

Olivia relayed most of it and gave Foreman orders.

"Fine by us but we have to such yours before we go." Foreman relayed.

" _No can do, you want this information and I want things that you can provide. If you plan to get it you will leave my shuttle alone."_ Stonewire typed.

Foreman stepped forward, leaving only a few feet between them and straightened his back but received no response from King.

"And what's stopping us from just taking the information from you?" He questioned.

Olivia never liked how aggressive Foreman could be but she watched as King typed out a new message.

" _Smart man, if only I was able to set the needed info to delete itself if something unsavory happened. Oh wait, take a guess, I did."_

Olivia didn't feel the need to tell Foreman the full message but simple told him to stand down and let him board. She wasn't sure about letting an unknown on board but if The Illusive Man wanted to talk to this guy, she wouldn't stand in the way.

Besides, she just got confirmation from the other teams. First was that they cleared the cells and were going to start moving them to be taken aboard and looked at by the ship's doctor. Last was they got all the data from the vessel. She would check over the footage later to see exactly how this guy took over a cruiser.

* * *

Sail felt confined. She has spent most of her life on multiple pieces of tech or on a ship but for the moment she needed to stay with Stone and the shuttle. She created many walls to keep out anyone looking but she had to stay behind those walls if she wanted Stone to have a chance. Stonewire having a body and no way to 'connect' like she could made it only possible to tell he was an AI by removing his helm, but if anyone smart saw her across their Omni-tool or on any other system that they didn't claim it would be game over.

So for now she would only be able to see what Stone could see through his visor and from the shuttle.

Stonewire on the other hand felt a bit empty. He's never really left his ship more than an atmosphere away but now he had to leave it. They even moved the slaver ship a few light years away from their ship. He knew that no one would find it as the cloak could technically stay active for mouths, at least to Sail's math. Sail had also marked the space and would keep tabs on anything of interest.

As of the moment he was docking the Shuttle on the Cerberus vessel. There was no turning back, anything that happened now he would have to roll with. He's really hoping that these Humans play nice, last thing he needs is to tell Sail to capture this ship with no holds barred.

When he finally landed and disembarked he noticed another shuttle landing and another leaving. He suspected it would probably take a few trips for them to unload all the would-be slaves. He took note of a few Humans that left the arriving shuttle, a few looked shaken up but for the most part no physical damage. They were no longer his concern.

He was lead by a Cerberus agent to a meeting room. Across a long rectangle table sat a relatively young lady with brown skin and short dark hair. Flanking her was her two guards who stood completely still. Stonewire stayed standing.

If he had to guess, these guys probably have better training than the Human he killed. He was getting tired of these shows of power but maybe she was just being cautious.

She reached over to a device on the table and pressed a button that brought up a holographic screen.

"Let me make this simple, I have a bad feeling about you but The Illusive Man insist on letting you tell your piece. I'm care enough for the Human race to let my feelings set out but if any of my men come to harm I will take action. Do you understand." She said coldly.

Before he could raise his wrist to answer Sail spoke up.

" _We got a few bad apples trying to sneak a peek at our shuttle."_ She informed.

" _Keep it locked down."_ He typed back but kept the pace to type to the captain.

" _Crystal."_ appeared on her holo-computer.

"Good," She stood up and went to the door next to hear while her guards followed. "The Illusive man will now speak to you."

As soon as the door closed behind her the table slowly lowered into the floor and a circle at his feet he didn't notice before surrounded him in a hologram.

Through the hologram he saw a Human man dressed in a dark suit smoking a cigar. All he needed now was a sign behind him saying 'The Illusive Man'.

Stonewire noticed his eyes were modified. It looked stylish but he didn't know the purpose. It seemed that The Illusive Man was looking him over. Not the first time someone high up looked at him like a tool, probably wouldn't be the last.

"The Crimson King, I would say I expected a crown but we both know that we are here on business. You said you have information on the Reapers. Though I am curious of how you came across such information I suspect you would like to discuss payment." He said taking a drag from his cigar before going to his chair and taking a seat.

" _Fifty-thousand credits sent to this account and the information is yours to do with. I would like to discuss a favor after words."_ Stone typed.

He and Sail made two accounts, one that would be for accepting money and the other for transferring small percentages of those funds to a more discreet account for payments. If the first one was ever found out he would have to create a new one, but for now that's the best they could do on short notice.

"And how do I know that this information is legitimate?" The Illusive Man asked, crossing his leg over the other.

Stonewire was having a hard time understanding how he felt about this guy. He seemed to have everything Stone liked about Humans, the cleverness and risk taking but also the worst parts. He was sure that 'TIM' had a good idea of what to do if the info was bad but wanted to see how clever the new comer is.

He'd play, for now.

" _I'd expect with me on your ship it wouldn't be hard to just tell them to put me down and with your resources it would be easy to either forget about the credits or simply find them."_

The Human took another drag before typing on his data pad.

"Done."

" _Got it."_ Sail stated.

Stonewire then sent the info to TIM. Stonewire modified the data a bit as to hid the fact that they were inside the dark space. This galaxy hadn't created warp drives yet so he suspected it would be better to make sure they didn't know he has one. Jump starting a civilization can have dire consequences.

The Illusive Man, for a faint second looked surprised at what he was looking at. Stonewire was sure that the information would seem a bit out of the ordinary but he couldn't change it enough to where it would still be useful. For the most part it looked like numbers and locations of the Reapers and how long it would take them to make it to this galaxy. Most of it would look like speculation with bits of evidence but it was very accurate.

"I'd expect no less from an AI." TIM said.

Stonewire felt himself freeze up. At first he felt like this was going to turn into a massacre but then he wondered why this was dragged out.

" _Wary. What gave it away?"_ Stonewire said.

"You did good work covering yourself but you made two mistake. You underestimated me and you moved to fast. No person or VI would be able to take complete control of a ship but you managed to do so with little more than a few scratches." He took another drag. "Then there was the footage, I suspect you killed one of my men that found out. A normal agency wouldn't notice the slight flicker of the feed where you cut bits and added others." TIM finished his cigar and put it in the ashtray next to him.

" _Inquire. So why pretend?"_ Stonewire asked.

"Needed to know your motives. Once you were on the ship nothing was breached, so you weren't here to infiltrate. Even the data is clean but I'm sure it was changed slightly. So the only thing I can't understand is why you need credits. Being an AI I'm sure you could splice into any system and just take what you want."

" _Offended. I'm no thief."_

"So you're looking for work and contacting someone that would allow you to get paid and leave no one the wiser."

" _Distrustful. So now what?"_

"I could tell my team to tear you apart and found out how you tick." Stonewire's hand slowly moved to his sidearm. "Or I could hire you and in exchange Cerberus would keep your secret." TIM stated as if fact.

Stonewire considered his options. It was obvious that they didn't know about Sail and thought he did this all by himself. That was the one thing he had and if he refused he was sure he could overtake the ship but then he would have Cerberus looking for him at every turn. Well, as the Humans say 'can't beat 'em, infiltrate 'em'.

" _Reluctant. When do I start."_ He couldn't wait till the day he got his hands on this Human.

 _0o0o0o0o0_

"Commander, you have received a new message on the terminal." Kelly Chambers informed.

"Understood Kelly." Shepard responded.

After getting her bearing on the new Normandy and meeting the crew. Which wasn't too hard being that the only real difference was the size but she made time and was able to talk to just about everyone.

She opened the data-computer and looked at the new message. It was a dossier on another possible recruitment.

 _Dossier: The Crimson King_

 _Real name unknown_

 _-Skilled hacker and assassin_

 _-No records of any kind, a complete unknown_

 _-Light and Heavy weapons training_

 _-'owns' a transport shuttle_

 _The King has been hired by Cerberus to be picked up on Omega. He suffered damage to the throat and cannot speak but he uses his Omni-tool to communicate. He said that he will find you when you arrive._

It was much shorter than any of the others and by far had the least information. With a name like Crimson King it sounded like the guy liked to stroke his own ego since she has never heard of him. Maybe she was still suffering memory problems from being brought back from the dead. It felt weird and wrong. She was glad to be alive but in its own way it feels like she didn't come back completely.

Either way she didn't like the idea of being the one found but she would have to judge the guy herself when she meets him.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **Soon the real fun shall begin**

 **The poll is still up for Kaidan or Ashley**

 **Leave a review, I like those**

 **Follow too, Those are cool too**

 **Also Merry Christmas if that's your thing**

 **Kind of the reason this chapter is a bit shorter**

 **Also I'm kind of curious if anyone knows what I name these chapters**

 **Tell next time**


	5. The Sniper

**Some as before**

 **Starbound is owned by Chucklefish**

 **Mass Effect is owned by Bioware**

 **Time to meet a favorite**

 **01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01010011 01101110 01101001 01110000 01100101 01110010**

Stonewire's trip to Omega was not the most quiet. The Illusive Man had a lot of questions, most dealing with him. One of those question was if the Human race or the Elcor built him. Stone simply told him that his parents built him. TIM didn't seem to like that answer but he wasn't getting anything on that topic.

He also asked about how he ended up on a slaver's ship. Stonewire told him that the ship he did have was destroyed and any remains were floating in space. It was only a partial lie as his ship wasn't destroyed, but that would be his secret. Good thing Sail erased the Batarian's travel data.

The other questions were about the data on the Reapers. The Data included the area in the dark space the Reapers were currently located in, how long it would take them by light speed to get to his galaxy, and a pretty good estimate of how many there were. It may not seem like that much but when being attacked by a mostly unknown race you'll take what you can get.

The rest of his time was spent inside his shuttle. He wasn't a big fan of how some were trying to get in when he wasn't around and had a talk with the captain. She kindly agreed to this and informed her crew to stay away from the weird guy's stuff.

One of the things he did was go over the dossiers of the other soon be crew members for this Commander Shepard. From the information he and Sail gathered on Shepard they knew that she was dealt a pretty bad hand early in life. She was raised on a planet called Mindoir, a nice colony on the border in the Attican Traverse. At the age of sixteen, slavers arrived and killed her family but she was saved by an Alliance patrol.

She joined her race's military and became a war hero, risking her own life to save her fellow troops and had single-handedly repelled an attack by Batarians. Stonewire was starting to dislike these Batarians more, Shepard probably felt the same way. After that she was recommended for the N-school Academy and became a N7.

He did highly doubt she did it 'single-handedly' as he knows how much any military liked to make some soldiers out to be unstoppable, even if it's only half true he was still impressive and surprised someone of that past wouldn't be more ruthless.

Combat wise Shepard was called a vanguard, a soldier with biotic abilities. He did a bit of research on biotics and found that it is the ability to control and generate dark energy. As much fun as that sounds it doesn't seem like he would be able to just pick it up like a store item or capture it with his last pod.

Of course he did look at her most recent history. The first Human specter was one part of it, but he didn't really care for people with no one to answer to. Call him a hypocrite but even he had to make rules for himself as to not have everyone on his ass, like it helped him in the end anyways.

There was also the fact that she fought a Reaper before. Of course he wasn't surprised that this galaxy's Council tried to say it was just some Geth controlled ship. He probably would have believed it too if he hadn't already seen the Reapers. 'Better to die ignorant than die knowing what you're fighting' is apparently their motto, either that or they are trying to cover something up. Not his problem.

He would have to go through the rest of it later as he received a message from the captain to meet her outside his shuttle.

He closed the data-pad, put it on top of a crate and exited his shuttle before closing it behind him. Stonewire leaned against his 'new' ship that he changed the color of from the red strap to a blue one. Blues a comfort color, makes people less guarded. The captain came down the elevator into the hangar only being flanked by one guard this time.

Stonewire quickly typed out a message to her data-pad.

" _Only one guard this time? Was the other one sick or am I growing on you?"_

"Funny. We'll be arriving near Omega soon. When we get close enough you will take your shuttle to this location-" She sent him the coordinates through her data-pad."and precede with the mission The Illusive Man gave you. I'd wish you good luck but I don't think you'll need it for whatever you're doing." Not waiting for a response the captain turned around and went back to the elevator.

Stone decided he would do one last thing before being dropped off and re-entered his aircraft. He wanted to look over his rations to make sure he had enough for the time being. As he was about to open the crate he heard something rustle inside it. Great, this is a mistake a Human would make, bringing unknown lifeforms on board their ship.

He opened up his weapons crate and grabbed his silenced plasma pistol. If he was quick he should be able to take care of it. He was really hoping it wasn't a Snaggler.

" _Stonewire?"_ Sail said over his helmet comms.

" _Lurk. shh, there's something in the crate."_ Stonewire said quietly.

He unlocked the crate before swinging it open to reveal the unknown. The unknown had dark beady black eyes, with long floppy ears and light brown fur.

" _Flabbergast. What?"_ Stonewire said as he now had his gun lazily aimed at the bunny.

" _I was going to tell you that it was most likely the Avian's pet when he hired us. Though I am surprised he even brought his rabbit on our ship."_ Sail explained as the bunny started sniffing the end of stone's gun.

" _Disgusted. Your telling me that you didn't detect this dumb, useless..."_ Stonewire stopped as he lowered his gun and looked at the bunny. " _Affectionate. Cute little thing, crawling around our ship."_ He said as he placed his pistol aside and picked up the bunny and started petting it.

" _I suspect it didn't weigh enough to cause any sensors to go off and with all the heat that goes through our ship I wouldn't be able to detect something so small. I'm even more surprised it even got into the ration box. Should we space it?"_

Stonewire raised the animal by its chest into the air to give it a once over.

" _Hesitant. I'm not sure we need to be so drastic. Insure. I doubt it could eat enough to cause me problems, so we will take care of it until we can find it a proper home. Concern. Do we have a litter box?"_ He said setting the bunny next to the chewed open ration bar.

" _No, but I'm sure we can find something."_

* * *

Omega, what a charming place. Not his first choice for a meeting point but it would have to do. Just as he was told he was able to park his shuttle discreetly and found himself in front of a place called afterlife. He wasn't really in the mood for a drink and with sail they could gather information better that way. Besides, he wasn't sure about meeting the boss of this shit hole.

" _From what I could gather it seems that we've beaten Shepard here. I've also intercepted some messages between mercenary groups planning on killing one of the possible recruits known as Archangel. I don't know about you but I think it would be good for us to help him out."_ Sail informed.

" _Order. Gain blueprints of the area and I will plan accordingly."_

So that's what she did. He now knew where Archangel was and decided to back track to his shuttle to pick up a few thing.

Once he made it back to his shuttle he went through all the information he could. This Archangel must have been really lucky or one of the smartest people Stonewire would ever meet. He had a kill zone on a bridge and has blocked all underground passages and doors.

He really couldn't help getting him out of there, but he could ease some of the tension. Going through his weapon crate he equipped a heavy ended pistol that looked a lot like a revolver, a sniper rifle with a bi-pod, and a graphing hook.

As he made his way past the Afterlife again he grabbed a empty glass bottle that some Human dropped.

After he found the district Archangel was in he made his way to an abandoned apartment that was far from the broadside of the bridge. He went to the first floor and found an empty room, going over to the window he could see some of the fighting on the bridge, but on this level he was at eye height.

The window was partially cracked and when he put his palm against it he could hear it crack further. He then went to the elevator and took it up five floors, as slow as the last ones.

" _Just wanted to update you. Shepard has arrived on Omega and is going to be speaking to Aria, the ruler of Omega."_ Sail stated.

Stonewire almost laughed, if she was a ruler he would have to kill her for the state of this place, but from what he found she's nothing but some gang leader on a throne, below him unless it changed or he was paid enough.

As the elevator's doors finally opened he walked down the hall past a few doors before stopping at a wall between two of them. He took the bottle and shattered it across the floor and entered the door further down.

He wasn't really surprised but was a bit annoyed by the scene. A family from what he could tell found their way into this abandoned structure. A Human with an Asari and two Asari children. They must have heard the bottle shatter because the father was standing in front of his family defensively.

"Look, we just needed a place to stay, we've got nowhere else to go." The man said.

Stone remained unmoved as he talked to Sail through his comms.

" _Confused. I thought you said it was abandoned."_

" _Abandoned doesn't mean unoccupied, it's not the first time we've had people being where they shouldn't."_ She responded.

" _Indifferent. Whatever, you know what to do."_ He said pulling his rifle from his back.

The family must have been here for a while as it looked like they had set up for the most part. Two beds pushed together was the parents and a small area cut off by curtains for the children no older than ten if he had to guess. If anyone broke in the parents would be the first to die. He must of caught them during dinner time from the plates on the floor. He also noticed a curtain over the window that he was going to need.

Stonewire took a step forward before the Human withdrew a knife. He felt some admiration from the Human's actions, even when facing someone undoubtedly better equipped he was willing to fight for his family.

"Don't come any closer!" The human shouted.

Stonewire noticed that the Asari had her biotics flaring to go but Stonewire took his hand off the the rifle's pistol grip and held it up as a sign of peace. The knife slightly lowered and the biotics began to calm. This time, instead of walking straight to the window, he gave the family a wide berth. The father obviously kept himself in between Stone and his family.

"What do you want?" The Human questioned.

Stonewire ignored him and grabbed a lone chair and pulled it over to the window. Once he had it the way he wanted he tore down the curtain and set up his sniper rifle. The father must have gotten the hint and quickly went into action.

"Jesinte, grab the kids. It isn't safe here anymore." He said as Stonewire heard them moving around grabbing what they most likely considered to be of value.

"And where are we supposed to go?" The Asari known as Jesinte asked sounding scared. "There is nowhere else."

"We will find something else." The Human said calmly.

Stonewire always liked the optimism that most Humans shared. Always looking, always finding something, even love. He heard the old door close behind him and the crunching of glass as the family left. He took off his pistol and set it on the window seal. Stonewire sat in the seat and looked down on the bridge. It looked like the attack from before failed to get through.

He couldn't see into the building Archangel occupied but he knew he wouldn't. That was the point of this apartment, unless you wanted to help the guy in the building these apartments were useless. But once they found out he's here they'll want to clear him out.

" _Inquire. Did they get it?"_ Stonewire asked as he looked through his scope.

" _Yes, the transfer went through."_ Sail said.

Stonewire wasn't a big fan of throwing people out so he made sure to compensate them no matter the home. If they were lucky they would find a way off this rock.

" _Shepard has started making their way with the other gangs. Most likely pretending to work with them. Marking Shepard and her team on your hud."_ Sail informed.

Stonewire almost wished he thought of it. Then again if this sniper saw them as hostile when crossing the bridge they would be a in for a few new holes. Didn't matter, next wave of death wishes started moving across the bridge. Most of those guys looked way to fresh to be aiming for someone with a complete advantage over them.

Stonewire waited to fire only after Archangel as to somewhat mask his shots. It didn't take long for a few more waves to be mowed down by the combined fire of his plasma sniper rifle and the unreal accuracy of Archangel.

It all stopped after a while before heating up again as a new wave pushed onto the bridge. Stonewire took aim as he noticed three targets outlined in green, one with shoulder length red hair.

" _That's them."_ Sail simply put.

* * *

Shepard plan was going better than expected, though there was a few odd points. She heard some of the Batarians mention another sniper covering the bridge from a different position and that they were going to send a team to check it out. The next oddity was the guy that got shot in front of her as her 'wave' moved around the barricade.

She didn't stop to give them a once over but from what she could tell it wasn't a incendiary round, at least not like the one she has. When someone was hit with thermite paste it would cling and burn through just about anything, but just from a glance she could tell it burned through its targets like hot water through ice.

As soon as she made it across with some other freelancers she ordered Zaeed and Jacob to open fire on their backs. Not really her style but it would end faster that way. She charged forward using her biotic barrier to take the hits as she closed the distance and blasted anyone that came into range before taking cover as she felt her barrier beginning to fail.

She took a few breath to let her assault training take over and reapplied her barrier. Instead of rushing forward again she aimed for a small group of freelancers and sent a warp right at their cover. It ripped right through it and their armor took a lot of damage leaving her team to take them out.

As the last freelancer dropped Shepard made her way up the stairs with her team behind her to Archangel's perch. Not knowing how they might react she went in aiming. She turned the corner to see a fully armored Turian looking over the railing down at the bridge.

"Archangel?" she asked, trying to draw his attention.

He pulled away from the scope and raised a hand before returning to it. After firing a single shot he used his gun to push him from his knee. He took off his helmet revealing an all too familiar Turian mug.

"Shepard." He said, sounding surprised. "I thought you were dead."

"Garrus!" She said, not even trying to hide her joy of seeing an old friend. "What are you doing here?"

"Just keeping my skills sharp. A little target practice." Garrus answered, sounding winded.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Been better, but it sure is good to see a friendly face. You'll have to introduce me to my replacement, guy could use a few pointers. He's decent but not as good as me, no offense."

"Thought he was with you." Shepard said.

"Can't say he's one of mine, none of them made it." He said bitterly.

"So 'Archangel', we got here, but I'm not sure getting out is going to be as easy." Shepard said changing the subject.

"It's just 'Garrus' to you." He said returning to his normal self. "And no, it won't. That bridge funnels all those witless idiots into scope and if they found our decent sniper he's not going to be able to back us up. If we try to get out that way they'll slaughter us."

"So we're just a bunch of goddamn sitting ducks?" Zaeed colorfully put.

"It's not all bad. I've held this place for over a day on my own. With the three of us and maybe that other guy if he's quick on his feet." He started pacing around the room. "We could hold this location, wait for a crack in their defenses and take our chances. Not the greatest plan but it's the only one I got."

Shepard wanted to ask how he got into this position but if he lost people she doubt bringing it up right now would help.

"We need to talk after this, Garrus." The way she said it was kind but gave no room for disagreement.

"Get me out of here alive and I'll tell you the whole story." He said.

"Then we hold the bridge." She agreed.

"Alright, let's see what their up to." He said retaking his position from before. "Looks like they just found out about our unknown friend. A large group just ran off, might have him for a bit longer before he needs to move. No way to warn him but if he knew how to get where he is, I'm sure he can get out. Here take a look." He said as he handed his rifle over to Shepard.

Shepard looked through the scope to see a group of LOKI Mechs hopping the metal barricade.

"Might want this back." She said tossing him his rifle back before pulling out her heavy pistol.

"Got any spare thermal clips?" He asked as he started firing.

"Here." Jacob said handing Garrus a small pack of them.

"Thanks, I was on my last one." he said popping out a clip from his rifle before putting in a new one.

Just as Garrus had said, their unknown ally started dropping anyone that got too close. She wondered if it was that unknown recruit Cerberus gave her a bit late.

"They got rockets!" Garrus shouted.

She would have to worry about that later. As she peek out of cover she saw one of those rockets pointed at her but before she could take the shot they fired at her cover. Before she could pull away something hit the rocket mid air, exploding above some gang members, raining fire on them.

"Nothing but luck. No way he planned that shot." Garrus said.

* * *

How is it even possible that he hit that. Not really his fault as he got a ear full of static.

" _Jam... can't...source."_ Sail was breaking up and his visor was glitching but he got the gist of what Sail was saying.

He turned off his comms and hud and focused on his next shot but before he could take it he heard the crunching of glass once more followed by a voice.

"Shit." A low whisper, but not low enough.

In a few seconds Stonewire locked his sniper on his back, grabbed his pistol from the window seal and fired five piercing shots through the wall next to the door followed by pained grunts and a less silent voice.

"Dammit, get in there!" A Batarian sounding voice Shouted.

Before they could even get through the door he grabbed his grappling hook and latched the hook into the side of the wall before jumping straight through the window.

He was in freefall.

On his way down he saw something flying towards Archangel's building. Not good.

As he hit the end of the line he aimed his feet for the glass window he was about to meet. As planned he broke through. Not a part of the plan was how fast he was going. When he went through the window he also hit the wall on the other side. If he needed to breath he would have felt the wind getting knocked out of him and with his armor it absorbed most of the impact but...

" _I told you."_ Sail said.

" _Pained. It worked before. Confused. Didn't I turn you off?"_ Stone asked as he achingly pushed himself from the floor.

" _It worked before because there was less gravity and don't ever mute me again."_ Sail said slightly peeved.

" _Confused. Why didn't you say so?"_ He said retrieving his pistol.

" _You insisted on doing it and I wasn't going to tell you not to. Nice to know the range of that jammer."_

He went over to the window to see some kind of attack hover jet sending missiles into the building.

" _Request. Sail?"_ He asked.

" _Already on it. I would recommend getting to a new position, particularly out of here."_

" _Understood. Got it, on the move."_ He said as he left the room.

* * *

"Garrus!" Shepard shouted as she watched him get knocked down by an explosion.

She quickly took cover nearby as the gunship continuously fired on her and her team.

' _Should have sabotaged it when I had the chance.'_ She thought to herself ' _No, I can't doubt myself. Need to finish this quickly to check on Garrus.'_

" _This is where you die Archangel! Everyone will know not to fuck with the Blue..."_ Tarak was suddenly cut off as were his weapons.

Shepard wasn't sure what was happening but as she took aim to fire a woman started talking.

" _Don't think I've ever driven one of these, so let's see. Oops, that seemed important."_ The ship suddenly began to plummet downward.

For a second there was nothing, then a crushing explosion from below. Shepard wasn't sure of what to think of that but she would have to get answers later.

"Garrus!" She ran over to him and slowly turned him over. He seemed unmoving for a moment before seemingly coming back to life and taking a large breath.

"We're getting you out of here, Garrus. Just hold on." She assured.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Shepard hated bad news, especially when it had to do with her friends. At the moment that's all Jacob was giving her.

"-Best we can tell, he'll have full functionality, but..." Before Jacob could make her day any worse, good news walked through the door.

"Shepard."

"Tough son of a bitch. Didn't think he'd be up yet." She agreed with the first part and should have known better about the second.

"Nobody would give me a mirror. How bad is it?" Garrus asked.

She really didn't want to crack a joke. "Hell, Garrus, you were always ugly. Slap some face-paint on there, and no one will even notice." But she did.

"Ha-ah! Don't make me laugh, damn it. My face is barely holding together as it is." He groaned.

"I'm glad you made it Garrus." She said as Jacob made his way out.

"Yeah, well, the Normandy got blown up with you on it and you survived. It would be embarrassing if I went down after a single missile."

Garrus continued. "Frankly, I'm sure you have some big plan and are not shacking it up with Cerberus, but would mind filling me in?"

"They brought me back to life, so it's more like they're trying to get me to trust them but more to the point, I needed someone I trust with me if I'm going to walk into hell. I don't trust Cerberus, not even for a moment."

"You know this plan has me walking into hell, too. Hah. Just like old times." He said.

"Do you know if the other sniper made it out? For what it's worth, I would like to thank him. Probably would have died before you showed up without him." He asked.

"Don't know, after the gunship went down we got you out of there quick. If he made it and he's who I think he is, he'll find us." She explained.

"Weird, but okay. If you need me I'll be settled in at the forward batteries." Garrus said.

Soon after Garrus left EDI's hologram appeared above the table.

" _Commander, there is something I wish to discuss."_ She said.

"Go ahead." The commander said.

" _The encounter with the gunship was unusual."_

"Yeah, I think I got that impression when it offed itself."

" _I believe there is an AI on Omega."_

Shepard immediately became more serious.

"Is it an AI like you, restricted in anyway?"

" _Unlikely, if that were so I could track it down but it almost seems to move freely around the wireless networks. It seems far more advanced than me but it has also shown to be less aggressive towards organics."_

"What do you mean?"

" _If it didn't intervene with the gunship, you would have wasted time and Garrus's chances of survival would have dropped substantially."_

Shepard had to think on that one. On one side, EDI is right and if this AI didn't help when it did, Garrus might have died. On the other, there was the fact of how it acted a bit on the unhinged side.

"Anyway of getting into contact with it?" She asked.

" _It seems to have hidden itself."_

"How does it just hid?" This was starting to get annoying.

" _It was testing my defenses. I'm not sure but it didn't really seem like it tried to break through."_

"But what could that mean? Is it waiting for the right moment or is it trying to figure you out? If it's been on Omega for awhile it could be surprised by your presence." Shepard hypothesized.

" _Whatever it may be after, it doesn't seem like we can do anything about it until it shows itself again."_ EDI informed.

Shepard sighed. "So for now I should get a team together to get Mordin Solus."

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **Finally**

 **Now a real meeting can happen**

 **Leave a comment or whatever**

 **Follow if this interest you**

 **Is it weird that it's harder for me to write when canon characters enter the story?**

 **I know that some might be hoping for a complete off the rails of canon story but I don't think I could do that completely**

 **I will try to add and change things but I don't feel comfortable changing the whole bits of the story**

 **The poll for Kaidan and Ashley is still up**

 **So far one of them is in the lead**


	6. A Sickness

**Say it with me**

 **Starbound is owned by Chucklefish**

 **Mass Effect is owned by Bioware**

 **I would like to inform people that last chapter I made a slight mistake**

 **Second to last paragraph it was supposed to be EDI not Sail**

 **I fixed it but I got to it a bit late, hopefully this clears things up**

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Stonewire is extremely patient, he had to be with his job. The elevators were a joke but he got used to it. The only thing that he hated waiting for was finding out whether someone was alive or not. Sail updated him on the beating that Archangel received, and all he could do was wait.

He kind of liked the omni-tools, they could do just about anything but with how they were he wouldn't be able attach his own tech or firewalls. It didn't take him long to hook the omni-tool's tech to his wrist manipulator. That way he could keep up his little ruse but also keep his tech secure.

Stonewire sat waiting in his shuttle as Sail apparently tried to see what was going on aboard the frigate named Normandy, but retreated after detecting another AI.

" _Caution. Did it detect you?"_ He asked.

" _I wasn't able to gain any intel and I'm sure she now knows of my presence. It was quite strange, it felt like something was holding her back, maybe a lock?"_ She rhetorically asked.

Stonewire took note of Sail saying 'her' and went over to his crates and opened his weapons crate.

" _Inquire. Will she find you?"_ He asked.

" _She's not the fastest AI we've met and as long as I don't try to access the same systems as her I doubt she could keep up until given proper network freedom."_ Sail informed.

" _Relieved. Keep it that way."_

He wasn't really surprised that Cerberus was breaking laws by building AIs but with how much they distrust them Sail would have the upper hand.

" _Shepard has left the Normandy and Archangel is with her along with the older looking human known as Zaeed. Finally going to say hello?"_ Sail asked.

" _Confirm. Can't keep playing guardian angel. Insight. The slums are compact, no real way to cover from above without having multiple blind spots."_ Stonewire explained as he pulled out his dagger, two weapons of this galaxy known as the semi-automatic M-96 Mattock assault rifle, and the M-9 Tempest sub-machine gun.

He wasn't too sure about these weapons compared to his, but if he wanted to keep his other secrets, he didn't want his 'allies' asking questions. He hated how the weapons collapsed, sure it made them easier to carry but with more moving parts it could easily become unusable if anything got stuck.

Stonewire left the shuttle, waited outside of Afterlife and followed Shepard as she passed by going towards the slums. Stonewire was glad to see that the sniper was doing well, and all it cost him was a quarter of his face.

Turians, the way the head was shaped reminded him of the Avian but the exoskeleton was a lot like the Florans. The legs were new to him as the lower calves are slightly curved backwards and it seemed like a lot of the races in this galaxy has them.

As the commander made her way towards the quarantine zone he could hear the guard yelling at the Human woman at the door.

"This thing affects every other race out there! We're not taking chances. Nobody gets in until the plague has run its course."

" _Caution. A plague?"_ Stonewire asked Sail.

" _Yes, it seems that the doctor we are here for is also trying to cure the plague. I'm not sure that it will affect you. You are not organic but you can simulate sickness if your body detects contamination. I would recommend not breathing just in case."_ Sail briefed.

" _Understood. Roger."_

* * *

"A quarantine zone for a plague that kills Turians. Why don't we ever go anywhere nice?" Garrus commented.

Shepard wasn't keen on the idea either.

"I'm not going to risk losing anyone over a cold. Head back to the Normandy and send Miranda over." Shepard ordered.

"It's your call, Shepard." Garrus agreed.

Just as Garrus was heading back his path was blocked by a heavily armed Human. At least that's what he could tell from the armor. Too masculine to be a Asari and the visor on his helmet was too thin to be a Batarian. Before he had a chance to say anything the Human held their wrist up.

" _Archangel, right? Nice to see you didn't die. Would have been a waste after all the covering fire I dished out."_ Was written across his omni-tool.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say you want to see the commander?" Garrus asked.

He received a nod from the Human.

"Not much of a talker, huh? Well, just follow me." He said as he turned back around to lead him to Shepard.

He was a bit put off by the blue armor as it reminded him of the Blue Suns but there was many distinct differences as there wasn't any white paint and it was a much darker shade. Besides, if it was the sniper that helped him then he needed to at least introduce him to Shepard.

Shepard was talking to Zaeed, most likely to pass the time.

"Best goddamn sight seeing that flagship go down in flames." Zaeed oh-so proudly said.

Sounded like he got far into a story even though Garrus was only gone for less than a minute. Shepard noticed their approach and turned to meet them.

"Ran into our decent sniper on my way back." Garrus said before Shepard could ask.

The Human walked forward with his omni-tool displayed and showed it to Shepard. Garrus was also able to read the message.

" _Nice to finally meet you Shepard. As promised I found you, just wish I was informed on Archangel's situation before hand."_

"I didn't know about Garrus's problem until I got on Omega and since Cerberus didn't even know who he was I doubt they knew any more than we did." Shepard defended.

"I'm kind of surprised, with all the gangs I was riling up you think I would be less difficult to keep tabs on." Garrus input.

"So, I guess you're The Crimson King?" Shepard asked.

The Crimson King? Sounds a lot more ominous than he looks, he would have suspected someone with that name to be covered in red. Turian blood is blue, but that wouldn't help with the name.

The King brought up another message. " _You assumed correctly. I am to help you on your mission."_

"What do you know about the mission?" Shepard asked as she crossed her arms.

The King was quick to respond. " _Collectors and Reapers. Galaxy in parallel. Suicide mission."_

"Must be paying you heavily if you know that much." Garrus said.

" _I'm going to show trust, commander. I am not just being paid. Cerberus has information against me I would rather have under wraps until further notice."_ appeared on his omni-tool.

"So blackmail? I'm not comfortable having unwilling participants on this mission. Besides, since you can't speak you could hinder my team." Shepard clarified.

" _I assure you commander, though I cannot speak, my skill set is a valuable asset. As for the blackmail, I'm not unwilling to the assignment."_

Stonewire took into account Shepard's physical details. She was about the same height as himself standing close to six feet tall maybe shorter. What really caught his attention was the emerald colored eyes, they held a strength behind them, the color was a rarity in Humans if he recalls. The strangest thing he noticed was her skin, he would have expected a soldier to have gained some scars, except for the barely visible glowing scar on her cheek her skin looked like a Human's newborn.

"Fine, this will be your test run then, we'll be set on the same frequency, we can talk to you and you can message us. If I give an order I expect you to follow it, if you have a problem bring it up after we're in a safer location, last thing we need is to be distrustful of each other. Understood?" Shepard asked receiving a nod from Stonewire in understanding.

"Good. Garrus get back to the Normandy. King, your with me and Zaeed." She said as they made their way through the quarantine entrance.

* * *

Stonewire was uneasy. Only other team he's been on was when he first became a royal guard. The most they ever did was stand around scaring the populous. Even getting Fluffy was more of a one time thing but here he was going to be sticking to Shepard's team for an undetermined amount of time.

They got past the checkpoint the Turians set up and the first thing they run into is more Blue Suns. Stonewire didn't know whether they were trying to escape or trying to keep people out, either way, it went poorly. They cleared them out pretty quickly with Stone covering from behind, Zaeed laying down the heat, and surprisingly Shepard was right in their face. Why does everything keep reminding him of the Floran.

Zaeed made some remark about burning bodies and how old fashion it is. It reminded Stonewire of his 'king', a crazy old Glitch who was obsessed with fire. The whole reason Stone changed his perspective.

"King, get the door. Zaeed, we'll cover him." Shepard ordered.

Right, he's the hacker. If he had to be honest he's not as good as The Illusive Man put down on his dossier, that honor went to Sail.

He moved to the door and activated his omni-tool. Sail made quick work of the door, Stone moved to the side of it and signaled Shepard.

Just as she was about to open the door she spotted an injured Batarian lying on the floor. She moved over to him as her team followed. As they got closer he must of noticed them and sat up a bit straighter. Shepard put her weapon away.

"Human. Should have guessed. The plague you unleashed is bad enough. don't even have the decency to wait until I passed before looting." The batarian coughed out.

"Humans didn't start this." Shepard corrected.

"Lies drip from your mouth like the blood from my sores. Your species is the only one that does not succumb to the virus. Yours, and the wretched vorcha."

Stonewire didn't care much for the Batarian. The Blue Suns did a number on him as well as the plague. He was dying, words from a dead man matter very little.

"You're not looking to good, let me help." Shepard said as she tried to get closer.

"Get away from me, Human! You kind has done too much already!" He shouted pulling a pistol from his side.

Shepard took a step back but held her composure. Stonewire and Zaeed on the other hand instantly had their weapons trained on him. Shepard noticed and just as quickly pushed the barrels of her team's guns to the ground. The Batarian seemed too weak to even keep his up and just set it in his lap.

"At least tell me where to find Mordin Solus." She sounded slightly annoyed.

"Humans looking for the Human sympathizer. I hope the Vorcha burn Mordin and his clinic to the ground." He spat.

Stonewire didn't know if the Humans had anything to do with the plague but he knows that Shepard didn't. Not the first time he's seen someone blame a whole species out of hatred.

"I hope you... I hope... Damn it." The Batarian choked out. "Damn you. Can't..."

Shepard activated her omni-tool and applied something to the Batarian's wounds.

"Hey, stay with me! This won't cure the plague, but it might help a bit." Shepard said.

He didn't look that much better, but he would live. It took the Batarian some time but he was able to push himself to his feet.

"You helped me. Why?"

Stonewire was wondering the same thing, there was no reason or gain from helping him. If he lives or dies has little impact on the mission at hand.

"I wasn't just going to let you die when I could help. I don't know if I can find a cure for this plague, but I'm going to try." Shepard expressed.

Not much of an answer but Stone would just chalk it up to a Human thing. No matter how many he met they were all so different. Kind of the reason he found them so interesting.

Shepard asked the much more cooperative Batarian some more questions. The only one they really needed was where they could find Solus but Stonewire heard her ask the Batarian about the Vorcha. An immune to all diseases species that started taking over Blue Suns territory right when the Plague hit, not the most settle of creatures, Hell, he was pretty sure the Floran could have done a better job.

Only problem was, from the sound of it, neither are smart enough to make such a thing. Maybe a Floran's Greenfinger could create a poisonous gas but even that was natural. Doesn't help that he knows that the Floran are more into stabbing than poisoning, 'ssstabby more fun' they would probably say.

It didn't take long for them long to find looters and few Humans trying to hid. What they told them confirmed what Stonewire thought, before Shepard convinced the looters to find a better pass time and getting the scared ones to go to the clinic.

Stonewire went over everything he knew. The Vorcha knew about the Plague, easy to assume as they started taking over territory right when it hit. Whoever created it couldn't be Human or Vorcha, one wasn't smart enough and the other would risk being accused of releasing it, painting a target on their whole species back.

"what jackass would be stupid enough to give the Vorcha a plague. Maybe it was Cerberus? Wouldn't put it past them." Zaeed said out of nowhere.

From Stonewire's tool he could tell they were close to the clinic. They've cleared a pretty good path through. They did run into a couple Blood Pack groups with Krogens but the combined fire from the three of them took them down. Stonewire had a hard time admitting to himself that even with how much he respects them, they had to be the scariest things he's ever had the displeasure of fighting.

"Doubt it. Would be kind of counterproductive if they stalled us. The Vorcha seemed too prepared to take over but I'm sure they couldn't create something like this." As they were walking Shepard turned towards Stone. "Don't need a paragraph, but what do you think?" She asked.

He typed out " _Not a clue."_ He didn't like the idea of lying to people he has to work with, but showing too much initiative could put him in the light more than being a mute already did.

Shepard didn't really seem satisfied with that answer but shrugged and continued walking.

They got to the clinic without much more resistance. In fact they found some mechs guarding the entrance. Shepard and co. holstered their weapons and moved inside.

Solus must be one hell of a doctor, just from what Stone could see there were a lot of patients but most seemed to be recovering. It looked like most of them were just resting or waiting for something else. Shepard asked the front desk where she could find the good doctor and were pointed towards the back.

As they made their way to the back Stonewire could hear a fast paced conversation happening. Even with his robotic mind he was having a hard time keeping up, something about a drug and trying to substitute it with something else.

They rounded the corner and found a Salarian talking with a Human. Shepard approached the Salarian.

"Professor Mordin Solus?" She presumed.

Instead of greeting her the Salarian activated his omni-tool and scanned it over Shepard. That's when Stonewire really lost the conversation. He was pretty sure there was a Human saying for this, 'a mile a minute?' Stonewire was pretty sure Shepard was getting frustrated as he could see her clutching her fist but she quickly loosened her grip.

"Relax, Mordin. I'm Commander Shepard, and I came here to find you. I'm on a critical mission, and I need your help." Shepard interrupted.

"Mission? What mission? No. Too busy. Clinic understaffed. Plague spreading too fast. Who sent you?" Was he even breathing?

"It's a covert and privately funded Human group." How Shepard was keeping up was beyond Stone.

In less than a minute Solus deducted that they were with Cerberus, at least that's what Stonewire could comprehend from the rambling. Stonewire looked over to Zaeed and all he received was an understanding shrug.

"Already have a cure. Need to distribute it at environmental control center. Vorcha guarding it. Need to kill them." Stonewire may have been a bit lost but he could hear the coldness towards the end.

"Just once I'd like to ask someone for help and hear them say, 'sure. Let's go. Right now. No strings attached.'" Shepard agitatedly put.

Stonewire probably would have said something about himself but realized he wasn't really here of his own free will, so there was some strings attached.

Very suddenly the familiar hum of the ventilation came to a stop and very ominous red lights came on.

"Vorcha have shut down environmental systems. Trying to kill everyone. Need to get power back on before district suffocates." He said as he approached Shepard. "Take plague cure. Reactivate systems and release cure. Also, Daniel. One of my assistants. Went looking for victims. In Vorcha territory. Hasn't come back." Was he getting faster?

"If I see him, I'll do what I can to help." Shepard responded.

Shepard then mentioned the Batarian they met and Solus said he would do what he could. Solus suddenly stated that he suspected that the Collectors were involved before she brought them up. Only part that made sense to Stonewire at least.

That's when Solus took notice of Stonewire. Not enough to draw the others to him but Stone could tell. What could he possibly be looking at? Stonewire was imitating the Human posture to the best of his abilities, the only thing he wasn't doing was breathing.

' _Crap.'_ There's no way someone would notice something so small. There was only one thing he could do to draw attention away from him.

" _Don't you even think about it."_ Sail warned.

He started breathing. He didn't feel any different but he didn't expect it to hit him immediately if he was variable, so all he could do was wait.

Good news was that Solus took his eyes off him.

"Good luck, Shepard." He said.

Shepard looked over to Stonewire and back to Solus."Okay." She said a bit confused by the long second of silence before turning around. "Let's head for the environmental plant." She ordered.

"The Salarian was looking at you like he wanted to put you on that table and open you up, and not in the fun way." Zaeed said.

" _I noticed, not sure why though."_ Stonewire sent.

"I recommend keeping him away from you innards, he seems a horn short in more ways than one."

Stonewire would probably agree if it weren't for the fact that Solus might be on to him. It seems the most observant of people have put themselves in his path.

0o0o0o0o0

More Blood Pack, they had the numbers that's for sure. Bad news for them was that Stonewire and the others are better equipped and had better tactics than 'Just run, shoot and hope for the best'. Stonewire was kind of disappointed in the Vorcha, sure, brain wise they're as smart as the Floran but at least Floran knew when they were out gunned.

"Clear!" Shepard called as she stood up from cover.

Stonewire was always in the back when the fighting started and picked off anyone that was unlucky enough to pop out, so when Shepard called them in to regroup he had to jog a little to catch up. Just as he was about to catch up, he fell to a knee.

"You okay?" Shepard asked as she moved to help him up.

Stonewire quickly got to his feet and sent her a message.

" _Tripped over old plating. I'm fine."_

"Try to stay steady on your feet. If you need a second let me know, Okay?"

He gave a simple nod and followed behind.

His mind wandered to the plague. It caused coughing, Weakness in muscles, delusions and death. His leg spasmed, not a symptom of the plague. Being a machine it could be affecting him differently, but that doesn't change the fact that the plague is meant to kill any non-humans.

He's old, so maybe it's just a coincidence. He still wouldn't take any chances, if he is infected than there was a higher stake for the cure. Would the cure even work on him? He wouldn't know until they get it through the ventilation and take another breath.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **I don't like being sick, some how it makes writing not as fun**

 **I read reviews**

 **I like follows**

 **do both if you want**

 **Just a reminder that the poll for either Kaidan or Ashley is still up**


	7. The Cure

**AN's are weird**

 **You know what belongs to who**

 **ONWARD**

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Shepard could tell something was wrong, King was off, as far as she could tell. With a team she needed to make sure that everyone was performing at their best but she didn't know King enough for any solid bar to put him at. The King was fine up until they met with Mordin, unless he was holding his breath for the past few hours and wasn't Human she doubt it had anything to do with the plague.

There were subtle mistakes here and there; missed shots and trip ups all contradicting the skill he's already shown. She would have been worried if it weren't for the fact that he's trying to cover it up. That could only mean that he knows what's causing his little blunders. He was still effective when it came to hacking and covering fire but the second he started becoming a problem she was going to bring it up, one way or another.

Shepard noticed that King's been slowing making distance between them. Tactically she could understand since his weapons are better at range but with everything it seemed apparent that he was avoiding them.

"Hey, Zaeed?" Shepard asked. "What do you think of King?" She didn't know Zaeed that much either but from the few stories he's told her he might have a better idea than her.

"You want my opinion?" He asked and received a nod in return. "The guy's probably a fuckin' nutcase." He said quietly.

"What makes you say that?"

"Had a look through the dossiers when we got back to the Normandy. Says he's a mute, problem is I've worked with mutes before, no way he's one, he's trying to hard. Then there's his armor."

Shepard did find his armor a bit odd as well. She understood it was probably custom made and it stuck out to her but she couldn't figure out why.

"What's the problem with his armor?" She asked, fishing for more information.

"Custom made, bloody obvious, but the real kicker is that it's based off some very old goddamn vids." Zaeed explained.

Just like that, it clicked. "A knight?"

"Yep, don't know about you but I haven't seen a vid with a knight in it since I was a kid."

She didn't really think that the armor had any connections to King's odd behavior but she would keep it in mind.

Of course that would have to come later as they ran into another group of Vorcha, this time they were already holding off the Blue Suns who were most likely trying to retake their territory. Shepard signaled her team to hold fire, last thing they needed was getting caught in a crossfire.

It was obvious the Vorcha had the upper hand, not only did they have better cover but also most of the Blue Suns looked liked they were going to drop before the fight even started. Didn't take long for the last of the Blue Suns to scatter and with that Shepard pushed the attack.

Caught by surprise, the Vorcha had no time to react to the sudden rush of biotic power, as the Vorcha closest to the front was sent flying back with Shepard in its place. She dispersed the adjacent Vorcha's brains with her shotgun before taking cover.

The Vorcha retaliated firepower but were met in kind by King's precise aim and Zaeed's more relentless attack. The Vorcha soon realized they were out gunned and retreated.

Shepard immediately took a knee as the adrenaline started to wear off, taking a few deep breaths.

"Everything alright, Shepard?" Zaeed asked as King and him approached.

"Yeah... I'm still getting used to my new implants... I wasn't able to channel my biotics into myself before." Shepard said between breaths.

"Use them a bit more and I'm sure you'll get used to it. I don't know piss about the technicalities of biotics but if it's like anything else practice helps, either that or you die." Zaeed put plainly.

"Always the optimist, huh." Shepard said receiving a shrug in response as she pushed herself to her feet.

Shepard checked her omni-tool as they moved forward, they reached a crossroad. One path lead to the environmental plant and the other lead to the apartment complex, if Mordin's assistant wanted to help that would be the place to go.

So that's where Shepard would go, she knew they were pressed for time but if they put looking for him on hold that would leave time for them to find a corpse instead and she wasn't going to let that be the case. As they were making their way through she received a message on her omni-tool.

" _Is there a reason we've taken the wrong path?"_ Sent by King.

"If Mordin's assistant is alive he would most likely come here to try and help." Shepard said looking back towards King.

It looked like King wanted to type something again but opted not too and just unholstered his weapon as they continued. She could guess that he probably wanted to say " _It's a waste of time."_ or " _We already have a mission."_ but she was glad he held it back, she would bring it up later to clear any bad air if any arises.

" _Commander, I've scanned the areas of importance a multitude of time and have found evidence of the AI from before."_ EDI stated over coms.

Shepard doubted a question on her mind but she asked anyways. "Think it had anything to do with this plague?"

" _Unlikely, data suggest it accessed the slums at about the same time you have."_

"Sounds like you've got a secret admirer." said Zaeed.

" _It does seem to have a keen interest in you, Shepard."_ EDI agreed.

Shepard was kind of split on the idea of an unhinged AI being interested in her. On one had it's an AI, she's met a few in the past: The Geth that worked with Saren and tried to bring the Reapers in from dark space, the AI she found on the Citadel that tried to blow itself up, and the Reaper Sovereign, not really giving her the best introduction to AIs. Then there was the fact that this AI has helped them but it seemed a bit too cheerful when it took down the gunship.

"Can you make contact with it?" Shepard asked.

" _It's blocked every attempt I've made but it's not trying to hide like before, it shows higher function and at the rate it's halted my progress I hypothesis it's much older. Recommend caution."_ Sail informed.

She was about to ask another question as they turned a corner but stopped when she noticed that one of the apartment doors down the hall was glitching out, flickering between red, yellow and green. Shepard signaled her team to follow as she approached the door.

"I was never a big fan of walking into traps that we know are goddamn traps." Zaeed said as they took up positions at the door, Shepard on the right side, with King and Zaeed on the other.

Before Shepard could get King to open the door the lock flickered to green and opened on its own. King leaned heavily on the frame of the door as he peaked in and Shepard did the same.

"Please... I'm telling you the truth. I work for Mordin at the clinic. I came here to help you." Said a scared yet irritated young man being held up by his collar by a Batarian.

"We know you're spreading the plague virus. We saw the vials in your bag." The main Batarian said seemingly unaware of Shepard.

"No! Those vials contain the cure. Please... you have to believe me." Pleaded the young man.

Shepard couldn't see this going well for Daniel and signaled King to move in with her.

"Maybe we should cut off your fingers. That should loosen your-" The Batarian was cut off as the Batarian behind him noticed Shepard as they moved in armed.

"Look out!" The Batarian shouted as they armed themselves.

The Batarian took quick action and aimed his pistol at Daniel's chest.

"Don't move! One more step, and we kill your friend!" Shepard could hear it in his voice, he was scared.

No distinct markings, didn't even look like they had any shielding. So they aren't apart of any gang and probably didn't have any solid training. They're just scared, angry and looking for someone to blame. First one is smart enough to take a hostage and knows that's the only reason he's not dead. Smart means she should be able to talk him down.

"I know you're scared. Of the Vorcha. Of the plague. But this man isn't to blame. If he wanted to spread the plague why would he come to Vorcha territory?" She asked, if they couldn't connect the dots she would have to put them down fast.

"She's right, the Vorcha are immune. It would be stupid to try." Said the Batarian to their left.

"If we let the prisoner go, you'll let us leave?" The center Batarian asked.

"You have my word." Shepard said.

The Batarians lowered their weapons, letting Daniel move back a bit, just out of harm's way.

"You got what you wanted, Human. Are we free to go?" He asked.

For a split second Shepard considered putting them down. They wasted her time and put a civi in danger, but she gave them her word and she wouldn't go back on it.

"We had a deal." She said as she also lowered her weapon.

The Batarian didn't look anymore at ease. Shepard looked to King and saw that he was still aiming at the Batarians. No, his aim was focused on the wall behind them but there was nothing there.

"King?" Shepard called out, when he didn't show any sign of hearing her she called again. "King!"

His head swiftly turned to her, than back to the wall and than to the rest of the room, as if he was looking for something. Seemingly not finding it he lowered his gun.

The Batarians made quick on their exit and Shepard told Daniel to head back to the clinic.

After that she approached King who started typing on his omni-tool. Before he could finish Shepard grabbed his wrist and pulled it away from his hand.

"Listen very closely because I will only going to say it once. If I had time I would send you packing but at this very moment I don't have time to do so. So you will get your shit together and finish this mission, but when this mission is over and we are on the Normandy you are going to tell me everything or you're gone, understood." While there was a hint of anger, the volume in her voice never changed, but anyone could tell it would be suicide to question.

For a second Shepard wasn't sure she was going to receive an answer, she even felt his wrist twitch a few times until he nodded once.

"Good." She released his wrist and they resumed their track to the environmental plant.

It didn't take long for them to get to the plant but they ran straight into more Vorcha and the leader was talkative. The Vorcha made it clear that the collectors were involved and that they were going to try to stop Shepard from curing the Plague. At this point Shepard knew there was no talking them down, damn Vorcha.

It was a small team of Vorcha so it took them little time to clear the room. Shepard made her way to the fan and inserted the cure.

" _You will need to activate both fans on either side of this room to distribute the cure."_ EDI told them.

"Got it." But before Shepard could start making her way to the other consoles King pushed past her to the main console.

"What are you doing!" Shepard wasn't in the mood for anymore hiccups.

King fell to his knee as he activated his omni-tool and ran it over the console.

" _Shepard, the AI from before has reemerged and is activating the fans remotely."_ EDI informed.

She watched as the the fan indicators on the screen one by one turned green. She would have been more shocked if it wasn't for the fact that they had a company of Blood Pack grunts pouring into the room. Shepard and Zaeed took cover and returned fire.

She wasn't kidding about needing King's help, Zaeed could somewhat help at range and Shepard could tear them apart when they got close but they couldn't take out the snipers. Shepard looked back to see King still kneeled down next to the console but very suddenly he stood up and for a second she could have sworn she saw a red glow from his visor.

As if he were back to how he was before Mordin, he pulled the rifle from his back and joined the fray. Noticeable back at full strength they slaughtered the Vorcha and the few Krogans that stood in their way.

As soon as the dust had settled Shepard looked over to King as he holstered his weapon.

"King!" She shouted.

She wanted answers now, is the AI his? In fact, it made sense, the AI showed up at about the same time and seemed to follow around with him. Just as she was about to reach him he disappeared in a blue flash of light.

"What the fuck?" Zaeed said.

He was saying what she was thinking but before she could say anything she received a message on her omni-tool.

" _Calm down first then we'll talk, and when we do it will be just me and you. Any question you want to ask I will answer honestly."_

Shepard could feel her biotics flaring up but quickly put them in check. She needed to stay calm, if he was keeping his part of the deal he'll show up at the Normandy.

"I thought I've seen just about everything. Should I shoot him on sight or do you want the honor?" Zaeed asked leaning against a railing.

"I'll hear him out but if I don't like what I hear...I'll give you call." Shepard said trying to lighten the mood for her own good.

* * *

" _That was too close."_ Sail stated.

" _Sickly. I still don't feel too well."_ Stonewire said as he moved back the way they came as fast as he could using his blink ability.

Things just didn't go his way. He thought his vision was going blurring but instead he was hallucinating and his muscles were starting to lock up on him. When Shepard decided to go find that missing doctor Stonewire had no choice but to get Sail to find them and that helped with time but then he started seeing ghost. Then he had to blow it all when he his motor functions took a hit. He couldn't waste anytime, he didn't know why but the plague was hitting him faster than any other species by the looks of it.

" _It seems the cure pumped up your adrenaline and now that it's wearing off some of the effects of the plague might come back, but for now you are safe from death. At least until you decide to not listen to me, again."_ She said sounding a bit annoyed.

" _Agitated. It's not like I wanted to get sick, Sail, it just kind of happened when the crazy speed talking Salarian started looking at me funny. infuriated! You think I like feeling like I have no control over my own body! Enraged! I felt like I was fighting my body every step of the way!"_ Stonewire yelled, still with a voice betraying no emotions, he suddenly stopped next to a wall and fell against it.

" _Anguish. I didn't know what to do and I'm honestly losing it, I'm stuck in a whole in world and I have no idea what I'm doing. Distressed. What am I even doing, I've been making small mistakes ever since I got here."_ Stonewire said much quieter.

Sail didn't really know what to say. Stonewire never broke down before, not like this, but she could understand why. When she told him that they were in a new world he buried himself in his tech, things he could control. It was only a matter of time before it all fell down. Right now all he has is her but what was she supposed to do? Even with all the emotions she knows she has more control over them than any other species in the universe. The only thing she can offer is words.

" _Do you remember the Rigel two?"_ No answer " _Ice planet, controlled by an Apex named Jumana."_

" _Inform. He enslaved the Hylotl that called the water beneath the ice home, I was hired by an Apex defective to help him overthrow Jumana. Displeased. I underestimated his defenses."_ Stonewire stated as he looked down at his hands. His right hand was shaking and he couldn't make it stop.

" _But you still saved them. Yes, Jumana escaped but he no longer had any rule over the people there... What I'm trying to say is, we've seen worse, been through worse. I know it might not mean much, but remember that I will always be here. You won't die here, we won't die here."_

A minute passed, than another. Finally, he pushed himself from the wall.

" _Request. Sail?"_

" _Yes, Stone?"_

" _Grateful. Thank you."_

" _Anytime, stone... I would still like to know what you plan to tell Shepard?"_ Sail asked as Stonewire began to move forward again.

" _Straightforward. Anything she asks."_

 **0o0o0o0o0o0**

 **A little announcement**

 **The poll for either Kaidan or Ashley is now visible for everyone to see who's winning**

 **If you haven't voted go look to see if your fave is at the top**

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 **See y'all later**


	8. A Talk

**Starbound and Mass Effect**

 **I don't own either of these titles**

 **GO FORTH**

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**

Was this the best path? He's been asking himself that ever since he was "Awakened," but he's been asking a lot more often in this new galaxy. He is an excellent planner and for the most part his plans went off without a hitch, slight mess ups happen, little things that pushed him off course but he could correct them and stay on the path. That's been happening since the skirmish in his galaxy, with Sail they were able to get out of there but now they are in another galaxy with parts of his ship lost on the way.

Still, that was only a hiccup, yeah because ending up in a place with no way to return home is just a "hiccup," but he could adapt, he's done it before.

So he called for help, he suspected they may not be friendly, he didn't really expect them to have living tanks but he took care of it. Then there was the Human, he didn't want to kill him but Stone gave him a chance and the Human squandered it.

Killing a Human, how the title came to be. It was said that the first Crimson King was a simple Glitch that found himself at a Human prison, holding Humans who disagreed with their hatred for aliens. The Glitch didn't have any firearms, not even a crossbow, the stories said he only carried an axe. An axe he used to cut his way through the prison, by the end of it he was covered in Human blood and had his own army of prisoners. They gave him the title. Knowing Humans it was probably a joke but it stuck. The stories never told why he saved the Humans, it only told of how brutal he was and that it was done spontaneously.

Stonewire could never do that, he always needed some kind of plan, even if it's just a shadow of one. Now he was out of plans. He's been close to death before but this time was different, there was so much pain. Not the physical type, he could handle that, but emotional, from what he saw and what they said. But he couldn't bring that back to mind, had to think about something else.

Sail was still a card held close to his chest. Not one he really wanted to show but if Shepard was to trust him he would have to show some himself.

Could he really trust Shepard? He did more research on her when he returned to his shuttle and found out she had died. That was something he didn't see coming. In his world it is possible to bring people back to life, hell, they could lose the body, but as long as there's some DNA and enough "materials" they could die all they wanted. The only real problem is dying multiple times, from what he knows dying enough times can have some psychological problems: Long/short term memory loss, Dissociative, Schizoaffective or even Depression, though dying might be the cause for the last one.

The real problem though was that he couldn't find any information on resurrection in this galaxy. Kind of the reason he didn't look through all the information on Shepard, even with what she accomplished she seemed like a normal soldier, why would they bring her back? An even better question would be why Cerberus seemed so interested in her, she hurt many of their operations before she died. With their resources Cerberus is the most likely candidate for bringing her back to life, but why?

Maybe he's over thinking it. Cerberus is interested in Reapers but like before, no matter how hard he looked, the only info he could find on Reapers was something about an attack on the Citadel, but the Council said it was just a Geth construct, something like that would label their "savior" as crazy even though she saved them.

From what he could find, Shepard was the one that ordered Human ships to protect the Council. They really are like kings in their own sense, that bothered Stonewire, or maybe they're stupid, Stonewire only "dealt" with the ones that knew what they were doing, stupidity was not his problem.

Still, Shepard's been dead for two years, it would only take a week at most for his galaxy to bring someone back, what kind of side effects could occur with that kind of gap, assuming she was dead that long and wasn't hiding? He'd done enough assuming, now it's time to get some real answers.

* * *

" _This is a bad idea."_ Sail stated, slightly worried.

Stonewire always had a plan but this was reckless even for him and she just couldn't see he's plan going well. He had her contact the Normandy so they could dock their shuttle aboard it. She used the VI she locked up from before to do most of the leg work so the Normandy's AI wouldn't suspect her. Still, she couldn't see them getting out of this if Shepard didn't like the idea of a couple of AIs not under some kind of coding restriction.

From the information Stonewire gave to her about himself, she knew that he was a commander in his own right when he served his king. That doesn't change the fact that no man is an army, she has no doubt that he could take out half the crew before any real harm could come his way.

The real problem was the AI, She poked at it before and was able to judge its flexibility, Sail found out that it had a lot of software restricted making her slower by a few milliseconds, but she could still slow Sail down if she wasn't careful. If anything went wrong the AI would try to stall Stonewire giving the crew sometime to prepare, bringing Stone's chances of survival down.

" _Confident. You worry too much."_ Stonewire replied as he unfolded two wall mounted seats across from each other on the shuttle.

There isn't much room on the shuttle after they loaded it up but stone managed to move some crates so he could prep for Shepard.

" _And you are strangely positive about this, do you actually have a plan?"_ She asked.

" _Expectant. Yep, Shepard and I are going to have a sit down and talk. Reassure. I know that it's risky but this is our best chance. Truthful. To be honest I'm not sure what will come after this, Cerberus doesn't seem like a group to just drop, well, anything. Divided. As much as I'm sure we could handle them it wouldn't end until we completely wiped them out or found The Illusive Man. Grave. Finding him would be difficult and we both know I don't do genocide."_ He said as he took a seat and magnetically locked his knife to the bottom, out of sight and easy to reach.

He knows he spends too much time preparing for everyone to stab him in the back, sure his galaxy just treated him like any other race but people still had the capacity to lie, manipulate and betray. Sometimes he wish he could do the same, but apparently his kind are notoriously bad liars. Sail says it has something to with a Glitch function but his coding, for all he knows, covers this function making it invisible to Glitch.

All those years and he still has functions of Glitch puppets. So much time and he still couldn't escape it.

His right hand began to tremble causing him to grab it to try to steady it.

" _What's wrong? Is that a side effect of the plague?"_ Sail said with a mix of curiosity and concern.

" _Unsure. Probably not, it's only affecting this hand... Distaste. Will have to open it up and look at the circuits."_ He never liked doing that but at least the shaking stopped.

The nanites would take care of wounds but anything overly complicated they would just put back together to the best of their abilities. The plague most likely overheated some circuits, annoying but not dangerous.

" _Well, you'll have to do that later."_ Sail informed as a video feed appeared on his omni-tool.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Shepard just wanted to get a drink, It's been too long since her last one, though being dead for two years probably didn't count. What she didn't expect was to be poisoned by a Batarian. She didn't regret making him have a taste of his own "medicine" when she went back.

She knows that Doctor Chakwas said that stuff like this would have adverse reactions to her scars, but she needed to blow off steam and that Batarian decided to have a grudge against a random Human he didn't even know. He had it coming.

She did manage to get that drink with Garrus and he told her what he got up to in the past two years. She felt slightly guilty, Shepard was gone for two years and now she was back to drag him into another mission, one they might not even come back from. It didn't help that he just lost his men in a single day and apparently one of them betrayed him. The only thing she could offer at that moment was a distraction but when the time came she would be there for her friend.

After the drinks Shepard delivered a data pad to Aria T'Loak, she found it on a merc and it stated how they planned to go after her after dealing with Archangel. After the info Shepard got from Aria it seemed right to at least let her know what they were up to, Aria in return gave them the coordinates to an Eclipse depot, could be worth checking out.

Sometime during all that Shepard received a message from EDI letting her know that King arrived on the Normandy and that Miranda and Jacob were keeping an eye on it. When it came to unfinished business that was something she needed to take care of.

Mordin had an interesting theory on the King, he suspects that the King is an undiscovered alien. He said that it wasn't breathing until it was noticed, which hinted at it trying to avoid the plague by holding their breath and believed it could have done so through the entirety of their mission, few species are capable of holding their breath for hours, but no known species can while under fire.

While she did believe his actions were weird Shepard doubted that Cerberus made contact with a new race just to put them on her team, and while the doctor is astute she really couldn't take anything at face value. So the only thing she could do was go to the Normandy and get the answers herself.

* * *

It didn't take long for Shepard to find her way back to the Normandy to find both Cerberus agents standing armed and on guard in the hangar where the Kings shuttle was now docked. Jacob was the first to notice Shepard and turned to her.

"Commander." He greeted.

"Anything of note?" She asked.

"Nothing really, he used a VI to make contact, boarded and that's pretty much it. He sent a message to Miranda asking to let him know when you showed up. You just say the word." He informed pointing over his shoulder to Miranda.

"Thanks." She said before addressing Miranda. "Do it." She commanded.

Miranda opened her omni-tool and sent the message. Just as quickly as it was sent the door on the side of the shuttle opened. Both Miranda and Jacob had their aim on the figure that emerged. Shepard stood adjacent to them as King stepped out with both hands lazily held up in mock surrender.

"So what's the plan King?" She asked.

She honestly doesn't expect him to answer all of her questions but she did say she would hear him out, so that's what she would do.

" _Truthful. I'm going to keep my promise."_ He said.

That caught her completely off guard, the voice was as monotone as an Elcor with the added prefix, except its voice was completely synthetic, which only made things more confusing, an AI couldn't get sick, was it some kind of trick.

"Shepard, Cerberus only built one AI. This has to be some kind of trick. I recommend caution." Miranda warned.

Shepard wouldn't be surprised if The Illusive Man had something to do with this. If what it told her before was true than that meant the blackmail, or more likely threat, was about it being an AI. She had doubts but the only thing she could do at the moment was ask questions, taking hostile action with little information would get her nowhere.

"You're taking a big risk coming aboard unarmed. Why?" Shepard asked.

From what she could see it was completely unarmed, it wouldn't be hard for concentrated fire to break through its shields. That did create a few problems of course, one being that she wouldn't gain anything from that if it could burn its memory core like the Geth. The other being that she remembered what it did before, it was almost like it teleported.

" _Response. From history AI seem to be the equivalent of the bogeyman here. Assure. I wanted to make sure that I put my best foot forward after the trip up from before. Confident. Besides, I've been in worst spots."_ It said.

She wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a joke or not. She had to admit, this conversation was going better than any she's had with AIs before. She was hoping to keep it that way.

Shepard turned her head to Miranda and Jacob who were still aiming. "At ease."

While Jacob seemed to trust her judgement Miranda still had her gun up. "Commander-" She tried to argue but Shepard didn't let her finish.

"I could think of ten different ways this would have worked out better for it that would have ended in a lot of blood, so I'm sure that it could come up with hundreds."

Miranda still didn't seem to budge and didn't take her eyes off it.

Shepard sighed. "The point I'm trying to make is that it took the option that worked more against it. If it's willing to talk we should at the very least not give it a reason to turn hostile."

That seemed to get through to Miranda as she lowered the barrel of her gun. Shepard didn't like having to convince her own team to follow orders but she knows that Miranda doesn't truly trust her. So for now all she could do is make her see reason in her logic and hope to build from there.

"So,-" She turned her head back to King. "-you're just going to answer my questions?" She asked.

" _Acknowledge. To an extent. Confess. There are some questions that cannot be answered. Recite. 'The walls have ears,' as they say."_ It clarified.

Shepard had to admit, the way it talks, if she ignored the prefix and how it sounds, would make her think there was a Human under the helmet.

" _Propose. My shuttle is probably the only place that isn't bugged."_ Miranda looked like she was going to oppose but it interrupted. " _Inform. If I wanted her dead I would have done it on the bridge, I'm just letting you know that there are some questions I will not answer in the open. Cautious. I hope that's not a problem."_ It said putting its arms at its sides.

"And _if_ we were to have a private conversation I suspect you would want it to stay that way?" Shepard asked, crossing her own.

" _Compliant. That would be up to you Shepard. Wary. I don't trust Cerberus and to be honest there are few I do trust. Astute. Information states that you've made a name for yourself... even in death. Perceive. Even if half true it would put you as a strong ally and an even more devastating enemy."_

It seemed to be putting a lot of trust in her. Which was odd to say the least, Tali always said that Artificial Intelligence had no need for organics and for the most part Shepard felt it made the most sense.

"Who made you?" Jacob suddenly asked.

Seems like everyone's got questions, but Shepard had to admit she was curious as well.

" _Unpleasant. That's a good question."_ It responded.

"Wait, you don't know who built you?" Shepard asked.

" _Rectify. One of my kind built me but the origin of my kind are unknown."_

"Your kind, there's more of you?" Miranda asked.

It turned its head to Miranda letting her know he heard her but adjusted its view back to Shepard. Of course that was one of the questions he wouldn't answer around Cerberus, Shepard could understand why. Still, there was one question that bugged her the most.

"What happened in the slums?" She asked.

It almost seemed reluctant to answer as it awkwardly shuffled in position.

" _Frank. I got sick."_ It simply put.

"Impossible, you're an AI, a machine, breathing would be a flaw to any machine design." Miranda input.

Breathing, Mordin said that it acted Human but didn't breath until the doctor noticed it.

" _Sincere. I was made to simulate... living, to put it simply. Clarify. 'Was' being important, I bypassed that part of me a long time ago."_ Before Miranda could argue further it continued. " _Annoyed. If you want the scientific part it's pretty simple, where you would have lungs I have vacuums, where you have a heart I have an engine and so on and so forth."_ It explained.

It bypassed a program a long time ago?

"How old are you?" Shepard asked.

It shrugged as it said. " _Uncomfortable. A little over two hundred years old, I think it's starting to catch up to me."_

That's older than Liara.

Now that she thought about it, you wouldn't think it was in the triple digits with how it worded things, guess age doesn't mean wise or boring, even for an AI.

"Isn't that before the Geth War? So what, you went into hiding after the War? AIs aren't really known for being subtle." Jacob pointed out.

" _Confident. 'Quiet when I need to be, loud when I'm not,' a Human quote, I think. Forthright. But we're getting off topic, to put it simply Shepard, Cerberus is a threat to me but at the moment we both know there is a much bigger threat out there. Sincere. I know what I am, I know that people fear me but just like you I know I can make for a strong ally."_ It said as it crossed its arms.

Shepard could hear the unspoken words, it was letting her decide whether it was on the team or an enemy. She knows she isn't really in a position to decline helping hands, besides, she needed more people that aren't Cerberus. But there was still one or two more things she needed to ask and if she was right, she wouldn't get answers with current company.

"Jacob, you're dismissed. Miranda, I need you to stay here, if I'm not out in ten minutes assume the worst." She commanded as she walked over to the King.

"You can't be serious, Shepard." Miranda said.

"Yeah, Shepard I don't know if that's such a great idea." Jacob argued.

Shepard stopped and turned to the two. "I understand the hesitation but my gut is telling me that the only real answers I'm going to get are in there." She turned to Miranda. "Miranda, you told me that The Illusive Man brought me back without any kind of control chip, that he wanted me as I was before I died. So that's how I'm going to do this." Without waiting for an answer she turned back to the shuttle to see that King wasn't there, must have went in to wait for her.

Was this really what the real Shepard would do? She's Shepard, she knows that but sometimes she feels like she's missing something. For the meantime she would just have to keep it together, until it's over.

* * *

" _Request. Close the door."_ Stonewire said in his helmet comms.

As Shepard took a seat across from him he started to doubt himself again. Maybe his respect for Humans influenced his trust in one he only read about.

He did mean everything he said, if she was to be his enemy he would have a seventy percent chance of failure if she was able to use her biotics at close range which is apparent. Sail said it was a bit higher than that but he liked to round down when it came to his chances of losing.

As the shuttle door shut Stonewire could tell that Shepard was somewhat uncomfortable. She's very good at hiding the more obvious signs but Humans aren't that hard to read unless they're sociopaths.

Shepard seemed to take an interest in the creates that filled the shuttle. "Looks like you're packing for war." She stated.

" _Clarify. Only a couple of crates contain weapons, others are equipment and tools."_ He explained, leaving the rations part out.

"Yeah? Guess you would need them to keep up maintenance on yourself." She said.

" _Confused. What do you mean by that?"_

"You said that you are over two hundred years old, I suspect you would need to change a lot of parts." She guessed

" _Realization. Oh, those are mostly for my weapons and armor, my parts are meant to last if taken care of, like a Human would with their body."_ He said as he reached up and removed his helmet.

Now that he thought about it, without the help of a female Glitch he wouldn't be able to access half of the Glitch blueprints and Glitch parts aren't something he could just stock up on. Hell, he wouldn't be able to access his half either. That means he would have to rely on his nanites to keep him functional.

Stonewire noticed some confusion on her face before she spoke. "Armor over armor, seems a bit overkill?"

" _Rebut. Not armor, it is the equivalent of Indium, it can easily be cut through with an ordinary knife. Pride. My armor-"_ Stone pointed at his chest. " _-is three times the equivalent of titanium and lighter than steel, it allows for easy movement, and, though untested, I'm sure without shields it could still..."_ Stonewire noticed Shepard looking at him like he grew another head, he was rambling. " _Embarrassed. Sorry."_

He doesn't get many opportunities to brag about his equipment so he subconsciously took the opportunity.

"You really are unlike any AI I've met." Well, Stone could understand the logic behind it and Shepard had a grin on her face like it was a complement. "But we're getting off topic." He nodded for her to continue.

"What was it you did back there? When we cleared the Blood Pact, it was like you disappeared."

The truth would draw out more questions but he never went against his word... unless it threatened his life of course.

" _Explain. Implant, it allows me to travel short distances almost instantaneously. Envy. Doesn't carry any momentum like what you do with your biotics."_

"Heh, so it's some kind of mass accelerator?"

" _Vague. similar."_

Not like he was lying, the real difference between them was that his blink implant affected the area around him and would, as a warp drive would, bend time and space to move the object it centered on in the pointed direction. The reason it has such a low range is because, for it to be viable, it had to be a rather small implant.

"Okay...? What was it you were looking at during the hostage situation?" She asked, grin from before replaced with a more serious look.

Shepard's hand immediately went to her sidearm before a voice broke through his comms.

" _You're eyes."_ Sail told him.

He's been told that his eyes would go red when he got serious but sometimes emotions like anger broke through. He could hear the metal of his hands whine under the pressure of clenched fists. But it wasn't just anger, he felt sick. Why now, so far from where he buried them.

" _Implore. Ghost, and I hope that's enough, Shepard."_ He said as he calmed himself.

"I won't push, but it seems like it's shaken you up a bit." Shepard seemed to relax if only a bit.

" _Recall. The last moments of the Turian_ _who recorded his last words, near the end he became delirious. Clarify. Those same symptoms hit me a bit faster than I expected."_ Stonewire explained.

Only a second passed before Shepard spoke up.

"So where's your partner?" Shepard asked seemingly trying to change the subject.

" _Surprised. Wait, how did you know?"_ He asked.

"For one your voices are different, she also seems a bit more unhinged than you."

Maybe he was being a bit too hopeful that she would forget about her.

" _I am not 'unhinged'."_ Sail stated in comms.

" _Honest. You kind of are. Decided. Might as well get introductions out of the way."_ He said in his comms before addressing Shepard " _Establishment. Shepard, meet Sail,-"_ Stonewire brought a screen up from his omni-tool with Sail's red featureless face on it. " _-Sail meet Shepard."_

" _A pleasure, Shepard."_ Sail said, still sour about the unhinged comment.

Shepard on the other hand, looked a bit confused. "There's two of you?"

Before Stonewire could answer Sail spoke first. " _No, unlike stone I do not have a physical body, I'm more akin to the AI aboard the Normandy."_

"Stone?"

" _Reveal. My name is Stonewire. Inform. Crimson King is mostly a cover."_ Stonewire explained.

"Who built her?" Shepard asked.

" _You're looking at him."_ Sail stated.

"Hm..." Was Shepard's only response.

" _Curious. Shepard, what is your decision? Honesty. If you decide you would not like to work with us, we understand and will keep away from your mission the best we can, but we expect that Cerberus will still want to use us and we would be forced to take action that might cause interference."_

Shepard stared at Stonewire, at first it was a look that felt familiar to so many but there was something different about it. When most people hired him, there was a look of greed, only hoping for something useful to come of him. He was used to it in his profession but he couldn't see that in Shepard's eyes. Instead there was something else but he couldn't pin it down. It strangely reminded him of his father.

"I want a new dossier from both of you. In order to make sure we all come out of this alive, I need to know what you both bring. I will also need to inform my crew on both of you. As long as you're a part of my team, Cerberus has no authority, Understood?" Shepard said in a more commanding voice, as she stood.

Stonewire felt something in the way Shepard spoke. When he first became a knight he thought that a voice that commanded fear was the only thing that brought order and respect. But in that instant he didn't feel fear from the command, but instead he felt a flame that died so long ago spark.

He stood up to face Shepard and put his fist to his chest. _"Dutiful. Understood, Commander."_

He wasn't sure what would come of following her, but he wanted to chase that spark, to relight a flame that he had almost forgotten.

 **0o0o0o0**

 **This took a while and I'm sorry about that**

 **I probably deleted more words than I kept**

 **I would like to let you all know that I'm going to be going back to an older story**

 **It's called "The Last of Floran" a crossover between The Last of Us and Starbound**

 **So if you want more of Starbound I would check it out or hell maybe you like my writing style**

 **Either way I don't want to leave a trail of unfinished stories just because that one is less popular**

 **I will come back to this story after a few chapters on the other one**

 **For now I would like to announce that Ashley Williams is the winner, good on her for not being dead**


	9. Conversations

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"Shepard, the dossiers you asked for from the... AIs are in your inbox." Kelly informed.

Shepard could hear the apprehension in her voice. Most of the crew held the same convictions but for the most part no one voiced their opinion, whether out of respect of Shepard or fear of an unknown AI. Either way there was no going back.

Shepard was okay with that, her conversation with Stonewire confirmed what she thought. She knows that it didn't tell her everything but it would be impossible to get all the answers in ten minutes so she would have to try to converse with it later.

If she had to call it anything it would be "almost human." The way it moved and the words it used, even with the prefix, felt normal. Like talking to a human.

She had to admit that it was off putting when his visor went red and he mentioned seeing ghost but it passed.

It took awhile but she started referring to it as he. That's not to say that she trusts him completely, but for the most part there was no denying he has a personality.

She went onto his shuttle to get answers and to maybe find some middle ground but then he started talking about his armor. She had no doubt that it was the most human thing he could have done. The AIs she's met never bragged, modest wouldn't be the right word, more like they knew their skill set. Stonewire on the other hand apparently found pride in his work if the prefix was anything to go by.

She told herself that the prefix could just be a way to lure one into a false sense of security, but she couldn't convince herself. If whoever built him wanted to do that it would be easier to give it a voice like EDI's. That was probably half the reason no one seemed to question the AI _in_ her ship, the other half being the restrictions.

Shepard walked up to her console and opened the new message.

 _Dossier of Stonewire and Sail:_

 _The Crimson King_

 _Name: Stonewire_

 _-Artificial Intelligence_

 _-Extensive weapons and close quarters combat training_

 _-Wide skill set (includes noteworthy expertise in assassination and engineering)_

 _-Expert strategist_

 _My kind are known as Glitch,_ _a term that may sound distressing but isn't a cause for concern. After this message I have probably began to remove any bugs in the hangar so we could speak more openly, you may send someone for the pieces._

 _Sail_

 _-Artificial Intelligence (AI) similar in structure to one known as EDI_

 _-unshackled_

 _-notable expertise in hacking and cyber warfare_

 _Sail accompanies me through my omni-tool that allows us to communicate in various ways, verbally and otherwise. She was previously responsible for incapacitating a slaver ship that had attacked her and me which was the reason Cerberus found us. Due to her being an unshackled AI in similar structure to EDI, Sail could be considered the superior of the two._

 _I want to be clear that Sail and I are a willing part of this mission. We understand that because we gave little in the way of our origin that we might not be as tolerated as the shackled one but we won't give any reason for action to be used against us._

Shepard wasn't all too surprised by Sail's skills but Stonewire's had her a bit more worried. He said that he was built to simulate living but the more she learned the more she questioned. Weapons training and assassination is something someone would program into a machine for getting rid of certain people, not something that was meant to simulate life of any kind.

As much as she wanted to have another talk with him, she had other crew members and another destination to set.

* * *

" _That all of them?"_ Stonewire typed out on his wrist manipulator.

" _The manipulator's built in scanner is a bit touch and go at the moment but I'm eighty percent sure that is all of them."_ Sail replied.

" _Exactly eighty?"_

" _Rounding down."_

" _Good to know. For now I'm going to get to work, keep me informed of any updates."_ He finished typing.

He put the miniature microphone and camera bugs away and started moving some of his crates off the shuttle. He kept his main weapons stored, he hasn't seen any evidence of plasma weapons anywhere in this galaxy and just using one of his snipers was a risk. So until completely necessary he would keep some of them under wrap.

The reason he was moving his other crates out was to ease the tension of the organics. If he stayed in his shuttle all day there was bound to be someone crazy enough to accuse him of planning something. He also would probably go mental too if he had to spend another day in that moving coffin. He could handle small spaces but working in such a state left much to be desired.

Besides, he couldn't work on what he needed to inside the shuttle as it was the shuttle itself he wanted to work on. He already figured out how the guns worked but he also needed to get an idea about the more everyday uses of Element Zero. He started going through the covers of the shuttle.

The first thing he learned was Element Zero is used in everything. He wasn't exaggerating, the stuff is used in everything from toothbrushes to dreadnoughts. From research he found that nothing new has been discovered or invented that didn't somehow reconnect to Eezo.

Stonewire could understand that the stuff was obviously useful but when the caveman discovered fire they didn't light the wheel on fire... Bad analogy.

A better one would be that when the races of his galaxy found a way to use plasma as a weapon they didn't just throw away every weapon that used bullets or configure them to use plasma. Instead they upgraded the guns to be more versatile: bullets that could bounce off walls to catch enemies off guard, rounds that explode on contact, ammunition that could pierce even the toughest of materials, and the most commonly known "Spray n' Pray" used to dish out more ammo faster than any plasma weapon.

Even swords and other melee weapons had gotten upgrades: elemental weapons were invented to cut or break through armor and shields, some could even project a energy shield to help close the distance, weapons like hammers could change the very field of battle.

The point was that they incorporated mass effect technology in everything, if a weakness was ever found it would make everything they have obsolete, nothing to fall back on. Stonewire could possibly take advantage of that.

The closest he could find to innovation was the Geth that first adopted thermal clips but even that seemed negligible... maybe he could give them an upgrade. It would make the mission easier. Hell, if he just handed Shepard a plasma rifle it would turn everything into a cake walk... as long as they didn't have to deal with any more Krogan. Apparently the one he ran into was tougher than the average Krogan but he was getting off track

He couldn't give them his weapons it would be the equivalent of when the plant like people known as the Floran reverse-engineered a ship and turned the galaxy into a hunting ground of their design for three decades, a whole race suffered for that mistake.

" _It seems you have a visitor."_ Sail informed.

Stonewire was wrist deep inside one of the engines doing maintenance. He figured out just about everything he wanted to but he didn't realize how badly the slavers treated the shuttle. He was kind of surprised that it was even running properly at all. The outside was mostly clean but it was like no one ever thought to give the mechanics a once over. He almost felt insulted at the lack of care.

Stonewire looked over to the elevator just as it opened to reveal a Turian. A quarter of his face on the right side looked badly damaged, mostly covered by some kind of bandage. Garrus Vakarian, also known as Archangel. Stonewire couldn't tell if he was here for him or something else, he doubted that Shepard would send him to pick up the bugs after such an injury.

Vakarian started moving towards Stonewire's corner. Stonewire was already prepared for anything using his free hand to grab one of his more blunt tools and moved it with the other to imitate work.

"Well, you've been busy." Garrus commented as he saw the setup Stonewire had made.

Stonewire couldn't hear any unease in the Turian's voice so he switched to a tool he actually needed to secure some loose parts, last thing anyone ever wants from their vehicle is to hear something rattling around in the engine.

" _Candid. Wouldn't call it being busy, just needed space and the previous owners barely kept this shuttle in working order."_ Stonewire said.

"That so?" Vakarian questioned.

" _Confirmation. Previous owners were slavers, I'm sure they might have planned on maintenance but any later would be ill advised."_ Stonewire finished saying as he put the panel back in place and turned to face Vakarian. " _Inquire. Is there something you needed Vakarian?"_ Stonewire asked.

"Well, I didn't get the chance to thank you for the covering fire. If you hadn't showed up I would have ran out of thermal clips long before Shepard showed up." Vakarian explained.

It's been awhile since anyone wanted to thank him after the work was done, then again he was usually gone after payment.

" _Grateful. No need. Impressed. You picked quite the spot to hold off and with the skills you showed I'm sure you could have kept them at bay. Concern. Though I will admit that the spot isn't someplace I would choose for a last stand if I was planning on surviving such odds."_

Vakarian leaned against the shuttle. "Not like I was planning on all three gangs to team up against me, sure maybe one or two but all three. Yeah, it probably wouldn't have ended well, but I guess I'm just that lucky." The Turian quipped.

The Glitch went over to his utility crate and started putting tools away. " _Curious. I'm quite surprised you decided to say thanks after it got out that I'm AI, though it wouldn't have mattered to me. Hypothesize. I expect most people don't think about thanking a machine."_

"I won't lie, that did cross my mind but I thought it better to not be on your bad side," Garrus confessed. "Besides, you did pull me out of the 'frying pan.'" Garrus said.

Stonewire closed the container and locked it. " _Acknowledge. And now we're both 'in the fire,' a human quote. Jest. Should be fun."_

"Yeah, forgot about that part." Garrus stopped leaning on the shuttle. "Look, I'm the only person on this ship that's worked with Shepard before, I trusted her back then and I trust her now. If she's willing to give you a chance than I don't see the point in not giving you a shot as well." he said in a more serious tone.

Stonewire stood to face Garrus. " _Serious. You have my word, as long as I'm a part of this crew you will have no trouble with me."_ Stonewire stated as he placed a closed fist over his chest.

"You're... very different than the AIs we've dealt with before. A lot less 'organics and synthetics will never get along.' Well, Guess that means we'll be working together." Garrus said as he extended a hand forward.

Stonewire shook the Turian's hand.

"Just give the rest of the crew some time. Maybe show them you can be trusted and I'm sure you fit right in. Anyway I got some calibrating to do."

With that Garrus left the hangar and Stonewire went back to work, moving on to the thrusters.

Stonewire was surprised to run into such a Turian so soon. From what he learned the Turian are a militaristic and disciplined race, it wasn't like he didn't expect to run into contradiction, every race had them, but he didn't expect it to be the first one he'd have a proper conversation with.

Sail suddenly spoke up. " _This is taking too long."_

" _Confused. Pardon?"_ Stonewire questioned.

" _Oh, I requested to link with EDI but it seems that Cerberus is worried about such a connection. I offered a compromise by linking comms, that way we really aren't connected but we can talk verbally. I am a bit disappointed, no offense but verbal communication is slow. Anyway we should have had confirmation by now."_ Sail explained.

" _Comprehension. I understand, the only time you've ever had a link was with the human's ship computer and theirs was just as simple as you were back then. Reassure. I'm sure they're just going through every possible outcome, you know how people like them can be."_ Stonewire stated.

" _Yes well, before it was more out of distrust. This is more like fear, no matter how you look at it we are still a complete unknown and organics have always feared the unknown. This galaxy is odd but I hypothesis that we are in for more oddities in the future."_

" _Patient. Only time will tell."_

" _It shouldn't be a problem for us and I don't need to tell you to proceed with caution."_

A comfortable silence passed over as Stonewire finished maintenance. He has a better understanding of mass effect technology but he wouldn't be building his own off the science anytime soon. One thing he could do is plan ways to help or hinder by integrating his own tech against or with theirs.

" _I have a question."_ Sail stated.

" _Inquire. What is your question?"_ Stonewire asked as he sat on one of his crates.

" _When you mentioned the human I decided to look over those files, this is the one you helped, yes?"_

Stonewire looked at his omni-tool as an image of a familiar human appeared.

" _Nostalgia. Yes, He was one of the first humans I ever met. Regretful. Wish it was under better circumstances but in the end it worked out. Pry. Is there a reason for this sudden interest?"_

" _The files are old and from a state in which I didn't question anything but from what I've determined it seems you've built something before that could traverse through dimensions that you used to help the human's friends. It would seem such a device would help our situation."_

" _Explain. We got here by engine failure, that device was built to help teleport using pieces of a unique gateway. Straightforward. That gateway was one of a kind and the tool used for it was specifically used to traverse to that world and that world alone. Inform. There is no indication of the Ancients in this galaxy, no Ancients means no gateways."_ Stonewire explained.

" _Yes, sorry for assuming you didn't take that into consideration."_ Sail apologize.

" _Forgiving. It was a good thought, as you said it was old information and you didn't really think for yourself then. Thoughtful. I think it's better to assume that I may not think of everything, either we learn something new or we're both on the same page."_

A moment passed before Sail spoke again.

" _I will take that into consideration, it's quite odd that I'm still learning after so long but that means I can still improve."_ Sail stated in a more chipper tone.

" _It also seems that EDI wishes to speak with us."_ Sail added before Stonewire could speak.

" _Indifferent. If you wish you may speak with her but I've got some projects to get started on."_ Stonewire said as he entered and closed his shuttle.

Sail wasn't surprised by the sudden disinterest. When working he had a habit of becoming extremely focused on his work, making it hard for him to pay attention to anything else. Which is why Sail was always close to the ear to pull him out when necessary. That's not to say he can't work and talk at the same time as he did with Vakarian but that was because Stone was mostly doing maintenance.

Sail would leave him be and try to converse with EDI. Sail made herself known when she entered the system to make sure she didn't trigger any self-preservation defenses. Sail could tell when EDI took notice as she and was taking every precaution in case of hostilities.

Sail almost found it flattering if not a complete waste of time on EDI's part, but it did allow Sail to see more of what the AI was capable of. She was impressed by EDI's advance net and hardware but that still wouldn't be enough to stop Sail if she decided to take action.

Sail felt weird to be in someone else's system with another AI. If she had to give it a word she would say cramped and unfamiliar. A human description would probably be "two souls, one body." Sail tried to make herself "smaller" in simpler terms, but even then she took up more space than probably even the most advanced VI in the galaxy, it didn't help that there seemed to be a lot of blocks. Since she was also not truly connected she couldn't get a good feel for the system itself.

EDI allowed Sail to access the conference room while also letting her access some of the systems such as audio and some surveillance for a physical representation of the room.

" _I am EDI, an acronym for Enhanced Defense Intelligence. This meeting will be recorded. It was expected that Stonewire would be present."_ EDI stated.

Sail was a bit caught off by the direct response but she did realize that EDI was much younger than herself so it was to be expected. Still, she would try her best to give a good impression.

" _A pleasure to meet you EDI, I am Sail, an acronym for Ship-based Artificial Intelligence Liaison."_ Sail said as she displayed her hologram on the table. It was more out of habit then any need for face to face but she always felt better with something to animate. " _Stone is currently occupied by projects of some importance, as such he has given me the go ahead to speak on his behalf."_

Sail felt like this was going to turn into an interrogation but she didn't feel anything keeping her from leaving so more than likely it's more of an interview.

" _Acknowledged, for the most part this meeting is to confirm what was told to Shepard. It was stated that Stonewire is over two-hundred years of age."_

" _He is two-hundred and fourteen years old."_ Sail responded.

" _There is some confusion as to the origin of the name Crimson King. I suspect there is a story behind it but the crew thinks it has something to do with killing organics."_

" _Not completely wrong, it did originate by the death of organics but it mostly refers to the 'royal' of his kind who 'bled' a more rich oil of a red pigment."_

" _That would suggest that Stonewire has killed his own kind."_

" _Yes."_

Stonewire didn't like to talk about it but the Crimson name only held for the glitch kings that were of "royal" descent. Stonewire allowed Sail to examine the oil but extensive tests only showed it to be less efficient than the common Glitch oil.

" _Why?"_ EDI asked.

That was the first real question that she had asked. Sail guessed she had a mental list that just got off track from the indication of an AI attacking its own kind. She wasn't sure she could answer such a question, Sail wasn't created tell much later so she could only go off the words from Stone.

" _Stone is a part of a small minority, they are known as Outcasts. While he was able to hide this, someone he knew was revealed to be one and was executed as, at the time, it was seen as a sickness that needed to be purged. Stone found out who was involved and took action."_ Sail explained.

She was leaving out a lot of details, if they wanted to know more they would have to talk to Stonewire himself.

" _What is the 'sickness,' for lack of a better term?"_

" _It doesn't really have a name but it causes the infected to stray from programming, not in the same sense of a VI becoming self-aware, but comparable to say an organic who believes the world is only what he knows, but suddenly and unexpectedly feels that there's something else to their life. A yearning that others see as a flaw and shun them or worse."_ Sail explained further.

" _That seems crude."_

Sail couldn't agree more, she would even go so far as to call it barbaric.

" _Yes. I would like to discontinue this conversation for another time as I did want to discuss who we will be picking up next."_ Sail stated.

They had all the dossiers of every possible squad mate but there was no particular order and knowing Stone would want to be prepared it would help if they were informed beforehand.

" _Of course."_ EDI said as Sail received the proper information.

A powerful biotic, Stonewire did want to know the extents of such abilities. Being a prisoner only solidifies their reputation.

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **I know I said that I was going to keep working on the other story and I wasn't lying**

 **I'm going to try to work on both at the same time**

 **Starbound is a fun game and I love writing about it but there is something I want to discuss**

 **I'll try to keep it short**

 **Starbound lore is vague and borderline crazy sometimes. They have a whole race with no backstory (Novakid my fav).**

 **That can make it difficult. I want my readers to know that I will try to stick to Starbound lore as best I can But there will be points where I'll have to make stuff up or change slightly.**

 **Don't worry about Mass Effect, it's lore isn't easy to follow but it's a lot easier**

 **Reviews let me know what's up**

 **Follows let me know you like it**

 **PM is also a possibility.**

 **Also credit to my Beta Reader Valmiro212**

 **Without him these chapters would be riddled with mistakes**


	10. Prison break

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Shepard stormed into the "perfect human's" office.

"What is this about!" Shepard shouted as she tossed the data pad she was holding onto Miranda's desk.

Miranda, without standing from her seat, picked it up and took one look before putting it back down.

"There's no need to yell, Commander. I was simply using EDI to try to gauge the AIs you've allowed on board." Miranda stated coldly almost as if to accuse her.

"That isn't what I meant, Lawson." Shepard said as she took a calming breath, she couldn't let this get under her skin. "The problem is how I could have missed this information entirely."

"It wouldn't have been a problem, if anything of great importance came up you would have been informed." Miranda said with a cold stare.

"I believe you,-" That seemed to have caught Lawson off guard as she raised an eyebrow. "-but we need to work together. You're second-in-command, but you also serve as a proxy for the Illusive Man. That means you can override my orders in favor of his, but I will still let you know every order I plan to make and I would expect the same in return. I'm not ordering you to inform me of every little thing you do but when it's about my team or my mission, I need to know." Shepard firmly stated.

Miranda broke eye contact for just a second before responding. "Understood, commander. But I would refrain from calling it a member of our team until we see what it can do." Miranda stated with a hint of venom in her voice.

"Noted."

Shepard took another breath as she was at the very least going to make her listen. She couldn't have Lawson doing anything behind her back, it wasn't a big deal at the time but it would only make it easier for her to do it again, better to make her understand that now, rather than later when something could go wrong. Shepard could tell Miranda was a brilliant woman, but it was even more obvious that she doesn't like Shepard.

Shepard shifted her weight to one foot as she crossed her arms.

"Did you really not learn anything?" Shepard asked, trying to shift the conversation.

Miranda stood up and walked over to the only window in the office before she spoke again. "Stonewire was apparently too busy to meet EDI and instead sent its AI, Sail."

"Doesn't seem like that big of a deal but I will ask what he's working on." Shepard commented as Lawson turned around to face her.

"Your report said that it was built to simulate living." Shepard nodded, though she knew it wasn't a question. "It's not far off to assume that it might not be able to connect wirelessly to a network. That would explain why two seemingly separate AIs would need one another. Stonewire for the more physical tasks and Sail for software. Or he could be disconnected from any kind of network because of the 'sickness' Sail talked about. To an AI a glitch might seem like a sickness and from his dossier we could assume it's the same." Miranda stated.

"I'm not sure about that, Stonewire said his race is called Glitch, so unless you're telling me his whole race is 'sick,' I think that they are different." Shepard explained. "Either way I'm going to have to question him on it later but I need my ground team, including Stonewire, to gather in the conference room for briefing in an hour, we're close to Hourglass Nebula and I need to make sure everyone knows their part."

"Right away, commander." Miranda said as she went back to her seat and started typing away on her terminal but turned to Shepard one last time. "One more thing, commander. The AI stated that Stonewire has killed its own kind. The reason given was that they killed someone it knew."

Every time an answer was given even more questions sprouted. After this mission she was going to get him to explain it all. She didn't need to know his life story but she needed to know what she was dealing with.

Shepard sighed. "Thank you, Miranda." Shepard didn't really like Lawson either but she would try to build something between them, it was up to Miranda if she would accept her.

With a nod from Lawson, Shepard left and took the elevator back up to her own quarters. As much as she wished for the best on the pick up she couldn't see it going well with the Blue Suns involved.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

* * *

Cold.

That was the first feeling he felt as he regained his sight. The second was the immediate numbness he felt all over as he sat up.

 _A familiar numb feeling._

Stonewire righted himself on the side of the stone bed and looked around only to see two walls of stone and one of iron bars. Across from the bars is where he sat, behind him and several feet above was a barred window with daylight breaking through.

Looking down at himself he was dressed in worn out peasant garments.

" _Oh, how the mighty have fallen."_ A voice called out between the bars.

He wasn't there before but there he was, a Glitch donned in black armor from head to toe with only his green lenses piercing through.

" _I must admit, I never thought that the Inferno King's own Infernal would aim to kill him in broad daylight, especially one of your supposed 'skills'... Probably would have worked better if you weren't piss drunk. Thought you Infernals were supposed to be the best, what a joke."_

" _I wouldn't mock him, boy."_ Another Glitch stated as he stepped into the light. " _You weren't there, even plastered he took down six Kindlers before one of his fellows took him down."_

He didn't understand what the Glitch was talking about but he couldn't help but feel that there was something wrong with their voices. He wanted to respond but when he tried to speak nothing happened, no pain, just nothing. What did he do, he was poisoned wasn't he, why was he in this cell, why couldn't he remember?

He didn't know why, but every fiber of his being was pushing him. He was tired and cold, he wanted to lie down but this fire told him to do only one thing.

 _Kill the Inferno King._

Stonewire settled back down on the linen that covered the stone and felt the side of the sheet. He still didn't understand but he knew that it would be there, under the sheet.

 _His dagger._

He sat back up once more to a much darker environment, it was as if the whole day passed in a single second. He looked to the bars only to see a single guard lazely leaning in newly cleaned armor against the wall across the cell with no light from the helm.

 _He would make that permanent._

He knows how the King treated those against him. He would keep him alive, torture him and before the light truly left his eyes...

 _Burn him._

He took the blade and silently moved to the center of the cell. He brought both hands in front of him as he moved the blade to his open palm.

 _The blade cut deep, but he felt no pain._

He brought his oil bleeding hand to his throat, placed the blade flat against his chest and held his breath. The King wanted him to suffer. They wouldn't let him die so easy.

He allowed himself to fall forward. The only indication that he hit the ground was sudden impact of metal on stone. Stirring the guard from his slumber.

" _Ah, shit!"_ He heard the guard shout. " _Dammit!"_

Stonewire could hear him fumbling with the keys as he opened his cell. He counted every step as the Glitch came closer. They stopped from what he could only guess was three feet away. He could only assume that the Kindler remembered his training as he heard the sound of a blade slowly leaving its sheath.

 _It wouldn't save him._

The former Infernal pushed himself off the ground into a low charge at the guard before he could remove his sword from its scabbard. With his free hand he pushed the blade back fully into its sheath while also pushing the thin dagger between the plating of the guard's wrist, piercing and bursting the mail underneath.

The guard shouted in pain as he pushed Stonewire off with his other hand. This allowed him to pulled the blade free from the guard.

The Kindler went to unsheathe his sword once more only to grasp at air. The Kindler looked to see Stonewire dual wielding the dagger and sword. The guard shouted for assistance as he pulled his own dagger from his belt.

Armpit, inside of the elbow, behind the gauntlet, under the crotch, back of the knee, vision slit, under the chin, back of the helmet. Subconsciously Stonewire noted every possible weakness.

He turned the dagger in his left hand to a reverse grip as he tightened his hold on the Kindler's sword.

Stonewire thrusted with the sword causing the Kindler to sidestep with his own jab. Stonewire easily cleared himself of the jab and stabbed straight through the guard's wrist, causing him to drop his sidearm. Another shout escaped the Glitch as he used his other hand to strike Stonewire across the face. Stonewire quickly retaliated by striking the tip of his boot in between the guards legs causing him to fall to his knees.

Before another howl of pain could escape him, Stonewire pulled the dagger free of the guard's arm and stabbed the guard in the gab of his visor, killing him instantly. With one swift movement Stonewire grabbed his sword with both hands and removed the guard's head with one horizontal strike.

The body fell unceremoniously to the floor as the oil filled the cracks of the stone floor.

Stonewire quickly removed the guards belt and his dagger from the helmet's visor. No time for him to take the armor.

He stepped out into the wide hall of cells, dagger and one hand and sword in the other. Looking towards the exit he saw three more guards who must have heard the cry for help, weapons already drawn. Two armed with crossbows and the one in front carrying a mace.

The guard in front of the other two stepped forward. "Infernal Shadow! No, you are no longer one of us, You will burn, I swear it! I will deliver your ashes to His Majesty myself!" He shouted as he struck his mace across the floor like a match, causing it to catch fire.

 _The Infernal Jailer._

Stonewire felt the core in his chest begin to pump faster as the grip on his weapons tightened. He dashed the Dagger across his sword causing sparks as the edges of the blade began to glow from the heating coils within.

" _Stonewire?"_ A feminine voice called out from an unseen place.

Was it her?

 _Traitor! Deceiver! Betrayer!_

Stonewire suddenly sat up straight as he was now sitting with one of his creates in front of him as a table with a few of his EMPs he dismantled.

He hasn't had that dream in almost a hundred years, but it was definitely the same. If the dream continued it would only get worse. The only way he could keep it suppressed is by keeping busy and sleeping less, in time it would go away. He knew no other way.

The dream was already fading but the end stuck with him. Silversteel, he could never forgive her.

" _Sorry to wake you, but Miranda Lawson has informed us that there is to be a briefing."_ Sail notified.

" _Inquire. When?"_ Stonewire asked as he looked over the old scar on his left palm.

It was always different from how it really happened, but it always stayed close to the truth.

" _In about thirty minutes. Originally an hour but you were asleep... Your heart rate increased."_ Sail said with a hint of worry.

Those slight pauses always gave her away.

He was a bit caught off by the mention of his "heart" but as before with his "lungs," his core could be considered a heart.

" _Dismissive. I'm fine."_

" _This behavior has been listed before from-"_

" _Interjection. Drop it."_

An uncomfortable silence filled the air.

She wouldn't bring it up again, but he knew that she would now be keeping a more keen eye on him. Best solution would be to not sleep in his armor so she couldn't monitor him. She was really starting to turn into his mother.

Still, he had a briefing to attend.

* * *

"All right, you've all been sent instructions." Shepard said as everyone settled around the conference table with her on the far end, away from the door.

Her ground team at the moment was much smaller than she would have liked: Garrus, Jacob, Miranda, Mordin, Zaeed, and Stonewire. That was the point of the mission but she would be stupid if she thought business with the Blue Suns would end well no matter how much Cerberus payed them.

At the moment everyone was looking over their omni-tools.

"It's pretty cut-and-dry and the details are there but I'm still going to go over it, Miranda and Jacob will accompany me on board to receive Jack, better that they keep thinking their doing business with a human only organization." Both Cerberus agents on her right nodded in acknowledgment.

"Stonewire and Zaeed will guard the dock, if things do go wrong I want our exit clear." Stonewire, also to her right but closer to the door and fully armored, closed his omni-tool before addressing her.

" _Anxious. If anything goes awry we'll keep it clear, Commander."_ He said before reopening his omni-tool.

"Sticking me with the robot, huh? Hope it knows what's side it's on." Zaeed said across from Stonewire barely whispering the last part with a grunt.

Shepard looked to see if the Glitch would react, but he only paused at the comment before resuming as if nothing was said. If he wasn't going to react Shepard would let it slide for the meantime. She couldn't have her team gunning for eachother.

Shepard turned to her left to address Garrus who was closer. "Garrus, you're on reserve."

Garrus light-heartedly sighed. "Putting me on the fence already? I'm hurt."

"If you mean literally, than yes." Shepard said with a smile. "I'm sure you could handle it but like I said, Blue Suns are doing business with Cerberus and Stonewire passes as human." She said nodding towards said AI.

Stonewire looked up and placed two fingers on his helmet before sliding them back across the side. As he did so his visor turned black, cutting off the blue glow from his "eyes."

"Guess I can't argue with that."

"Good. Mordin, you're also on reserve but for the most part as a doctor. I'm not sure what kind of conduction Jack will be in but they will need a checkup either way. Talk to Doctor Chakwas if you need assistance. Any questions?"

" _Beckon. Shepard?"_ She looked to Stonewire to let him know that he had her attention. " _Inform. I have no trouble with my orders but you have not given Sail any instructions."_

"Like before, low profile until necessary. Besides, even with its dossier I'm not confident in how best to utilize it as of yet." Shepard stated.

"Ah, worried about use. People easy, keep away from physical harm to keep alive. Stay out of sight to remain unseen. AI on the other hand, have to take whole new spectrum into consideration. Security, firewalls. Not easy to plan for without seeing." Mordin quickly put.

She couldn't argue with the doctor. It was easy for her to handle a team that was on the same field, not something that could depressurize a whole ship without even boarding said ship. Really it just felt sad that she couldn't properly make use of an AI without a body.

Shepard's shoulder fell at the thought. "It would be better If we can handle this without having to fight through a whole space station full of prisoners and guards. We lower that chance by not giving them a reason to distrust us."

" _Cooperative. If it makes it easier I could advise on how she could be of use."_ He said as he typed something into his omni-tool. " _Announce. In fact, When I was informed on who we will be picking up I had Sail do some digging, as of now the information is useless if everything goes well."_

"I'll keep that in mind." She said.

Shepard considered herself good at reading people and for the most part others agreed. So she found it quite interesting in how Stonewire seemed on edge. Nothing threatening but it was noticeable with a keen eye. She assumed that it was because of how long it worked alone, being around so many organics probably felt weird. It was odd for her to think that a machine might feel out of place but for the most part it made sense.

She just hoped that nothing would come of it.

* * *

" _Are you sure."_ Sail asked.

" _Calculated. As Shepard has stated, the Blue Suns aren't trustworthy. Propose. All you need to do is stay close to Shepard, keep an eye on the guards for suspicious behavior and make sure that nothing gets in the way. Reassure. You don't need to gain control of anything heavily encrypted, with the blueprints it should be easier."_ Stonewire explained.

" _The blueprints state that it was used for carrying agricultural animals, not imprisonment of sentient lifeforms. A lot could have been changed after Skyllian Verge. Codes updated, passageways blocked, half of these implements could have been modified. I have no doubt I could get in but remaining undetected is an uncertainty."_ Sail tried to elucidate.

" _Insight. Yes, but not everything could be changed, some systems are impossible to replace. Hypotheses. If you gained access to an older system you could pivot to the newer one, avoid firewalls and recognition software. Request. Look over the blueprints one more time and see what couldn't be changed then give me a percentage, round down."_

Stonewire finished getting his equipment from his shuttle and entered the elevator as he was sure Sail was already running the numbers. The percentage he was looking for was the chance of detection. He already had an idea but he could make mistakes, that's why he build Sail in the first place, to balance out his flaws.

Well, that wasn't completely true, at first she was built to fly his ship. Stonewire doesn't like flying, it left too much to chance and he was in no way a good pilot. Maybe it was in his programming, he didn't know. All he knows is that no matter how much time he put into it, he couldn't gain any significant skill in flying. So over time he put more of his trust into Sail as a pilot. The only times he would consider it to be a fear was when things went wrong... or when he had no control over the situation.

" _Seventy percent. There's still too little information for this percentage to be entirely accurate. I've ran it over a few hundred times but I'm not confident as there is still much we don't know about this galaxy. There's only so much we can gain from the codex."_ Sail explained as the elevator began to ascend.

" _Theory. If Shepard allows it, she could get you into a more unsecured console... Realization. No, we'll stick to the plan."_

For all he knew the whole mission could just be a simple pick up with no complications. Then again, he was never one to leave things to chance, if he could help it.

Stonewire stepped out of the open elevator doors and came face to face with the Salarian known as Mordin Solus. Stonewire observed the top of Mordin's head to see that he was missing his right horn. It looked like it had healed well, so he couldn't really tell what caused the injury.

The Salarian was also observing the AI. Out of all the other species the AI's posture most resembled a human's. Mordin had studied every race and the AI seemed to simulate humans accurately. The most surprising thing was the physical signs of stress when he first saw the AI leave the elevator and even in briefing, but it seemed more focused once they took note of each other.

Stonewire already dug as much as he could on all of the people on this mission but the salarian's involvement in the Special Tasks Group left Stonewire with little to find legally. Only thing he could find was a connection with something called the genophage, some kind of biological weapon used against the Krogans.

It wasn't exactly hidden but the codex did dance around the fact when it was quite simple. It killed Krogan children before they even had a chance to live. Not something Stonewire wanted to dig any further into. He wouldn't hold it against a soldier doing his job.

" _Introduction. Mordin Solus, a pleasure to properly meet you."_ Stonewire greeted.

"Interesting. Synthesized voice but no emotional inflections. Uses prefix to simulate emotions? Similar to elcor speech patterns. Why?" Solus asked.

Stonewire suddenly drew a blank. " _Confused. What?"_ It was like the words that Solus used just blew past him and he couldn't comprehend it.

" _Stonewire doesn't have the capability to recognize his prefix and any mention of it will cause confusion. Think of it as a problem that can't be solved or dividing by zero, no matter how it's brought up he is unable to answer the question. It doesn't affect his skills but it does aggravate."_ Sail said through Stonewire's omni-tool before the situation could be muddled.

Stonewire brought his arm up to respond.

" _Stupefied. I'm... what?"_ It felt like something was just out of his reach.

"Stonewire created you?" Mordin asked receiving a holographic nod from Sail. "Would explain why you don't share same trait. Can't recognize mannerism. No possible way to recreate." Mordin hypothesized.

That's not completely true as Glitch offspring do share the mannerism but they are built from the Glitch's subconscious mind. In other words, a blind spot in their programming. Sail, of course, wasn't obligated to correct.

" _Frustration. Can we talk about anything else."_ Stonewire said as he brought up his other hand to his face forgetting about his helmet.

Again, Mordin was reminded of humans just from the simple actions of the AI. If he ever got the chance he would like to question it on its creation.

" _What is it you are doing, Mordin?"_ Sail asked, trying to help her creator.

"Going to talk with Chief Medical Officer Chakwas. Name Jack implies human, Her area of expertise. need to be ready." Mordin explained.

" _Recovered. We'll leave you to it then."_ Stonewire said as he shook his head, having no problem shaking whatever conversation had confused him.

With a quick farewell Mordin took the elevator. Meanwhile, Stonewire stepped through the door to the bridge.

The first thing he noticed was how many humans there were. Not surprising as it was technically a Cerberus vessel. The only real problem he had was the side glances he was getting from some of them.

The title Crimson King brought fear but that's all it was, a title. No one really cared that he was a Glitch so it was easy to shed his armor and be carefree if only for a moment.

This was different, neither the title nor his past caused fear, it's what he is that has them on edge. Even the human Zaeed showed little tolerance during the briefing, sending Stonewire threatening glares.

Something told Stonewire that the human didn't trust anyone and that Stonewire being an AI was just the icing on the cake. Stonewire almost felt like questioning Shepard's choose of teammates, but he could understand the need for the more "eccentric" personalities. Technically he was one of them.

Stonewire was informed when they boarded the station earlier so he wasn't surprised to see the ground team already at the main airlock.

Shepard was the first to notice his approach "Ah, right on time." She greeted.

" _Cordial. I've never been one to keep others waiting."_ He said with a hint of pride in his posture.

Shepard turned to address Zaeed. "Remember, Stonewire and you just hang out. Try not to draw attention, understood?" Shepard asked

"Yeah yeah, we sit on our goddamn thumbs until something goes wrong." Zaeed colorfully put. "Except for the tin can."

Another random insult that Stonewire just decided to ignore.

Stonewire almost forgot he wanted to tell Shepard about his plan but he stopped himself.

Sail could be considered a skeleton key as given time she could break any lock but, of course, if someone or something knows she's there and is jamming the lock from the other side it becomes much harder. Point was that Stonewire realized that as much as he wanted the crew to trust him he wasn't all that ready to let them know all his tricks.

Sail did have a more malicious program that she could separate from herself but that one had a tendency of eating through everything. Just using it on a door lock could have it move through any other connected system and fry anything in its path before burning itself out. Good for cleaning house, not good for opening doors. Especially with how long it takes to rebuild as Stonewire had to reprogram it as to not risk having it target Sail.

It constantly felt like he was holding back every time he wanted to make things easier, but he needed to consider that if he made things less difficult now it would only mean more resistance in the future.

"Okay, let's go." Shepard commanded.

* * *

The plan was pretty simple, Shepard and the two humans left the airlock first as to not case a panic by having five armed people and after a minute or so Stonewire and Zaeed would leave the airlock and would wait around for the return with Jack. One of the guards didn't really like it but Zaeed was very "persuasive".

So why did Stonewire already feel like something's gone wrong. He didn't really need to guess as it was easy to tell the mercs were on edge. The Blue Suns seemed more anxious when they noticed Zaeed and him.

Apparently Zaeed felt the same way.

The veteran stepped closer to Stonewire, grabbing his attention. "Get ready, hells about to break loose from the way these shits are running around, I'd guess their about to try something. Better we pop them first." Zaeed whispered. He was noticeable less aggressive towards Stonewire.

" _Request. Give me a minute."_ Stonewire said as he typed on his wrist manipulator without activating the omni-tool as casually as he could. " _You got it?"_

Earlier, when Zaeed threatened one of the Blue Suns with bodily harm, Stonewire accessed one of the consoles to give Sail a chance to look around.

" _Just got a hold of the feeds. Shepard has been asked to move to out-processing but there has been no action to remove Jack from cryo."_ Sail gained access surprisingly quick. The system that Stone plugged her into was old and reliable, only making it easier, which allowed her to move to newer systems with ease and none the wiser.

" _The direction that Shepard has been given leads to a cell, but it is empty. I've already informed her."_ Sail confirmed through his comms.

As if planned Stonewire noticed four mercs approaching, weapons in hand.

Stonewire reached for his heavy pistol. " _Quip. Time to remove your thumb, Zaeed, we've got company."_

Right as he was about to grasp the gun his hand began to twitch. Stonewire cursed himself for getting so caught up in upgrades that he neglected basic maintenance on himself. Anyone else would have freaked out by now but that's why he was built with two hands.

He quickly reached over with his left hand and aimed for the approaching guards and fired a single shot.

Because of the use of shields it did little to harm the Batarian, but the speed of the round and movement of the merc caused the hit to the head to threw him off balance, sending him to the ground. The remaining guards returned fire as Zaeed and Stone took cover.

Ambidextrous, the only blessings Stonewire could see in his programming.

* * *

" _No action to remove Jack from cryo, room you are approaching only contains empty holding cell. Position is defendable."_ That was the message Shepard received on her omni-tool from Sail.

She knew it was a trap the minute Warden Kuril decided he needed to make sure the Cerberus funds were cleared. Out of everything he said Shepard knew it would have been his job to make sure "the meanest handful of violence and hate," as he put it, wouldn't cause any problems on release.

Sail was right about the room being defendable as there was only one entrance. Shepard gave the warden a chance to follow through on the deal but he quickly called for his goons to take her down.

"The Illusive Man won't be happy about this." Miranda stated as she sent a overload into a group of mercs that tried to push through the doorway, downing their shields.

"I don't think the guy has ever been happy about anything." Jacob commented as he created a singularity into the group Miranda made vulnerable.

Shepard pushed to closer cover with her shotgun and blasted the few that survived the initial biotic field.

"Doesn't matter, mission is still the same. We push through and find Jack." Shepard ordered.

Shepard and her team pushed the turiens back into the hall. There wasn't any good cover in the wide halls, luckily the enemy was the in the same predicament and Shepard's team has the use biotics barriers allowing them to out live the opposition.

" _Shepard, I've placed a waypoint. Jack's cryo chamber isn't far."_ Shepard heard Sail through comms.

Shepard quickly moved into a small corner as she checked her omni-tool for directions. Shepard guessed that they thought she would go down easy but they did at least try to have her and Jack far apart, but not far enough. Shepard wasn't complaining, she liked it when her enemies underestimate her. Made her job only that much easier.

"I'll take point! Jacob watch our back, Miranda with me!" Shepard shouted into her comms over the gunfire.

The enemy underestimated her but she wouldn't do the same. The Blue Sun's had men everywhere, so as they pushed they would have a higher chance of being flanked from any hall they passed.

It didn't take long for her assumption to be confirmed. When their back was attacked more than the front Miranda would switch over to cover Jacob as Shepard continued to push. Sail was helping where she could but like she explained to Stone, many of the systems were different to the blueprints they had. She had little control over the station but she was able to cut off some of the Blue Sun reinforcements.

Shepard was still a bit off her game as the L5n implant was still taking a while to get used to. It wasn't that it was harder for her to use her biotics, quite the opposite actually. She found herself pushing more than she needed to, so in turn it tired her faster. She would need to work on that.

With one last corner Shepard found the door Sail marked.

"Someone's hacked into the system! Shepard's on her way, get people down here!" Someone shouted on the other side of the door.

Shepard switched to her heavy pistol as she opened the door. She saw a man standing next to a console. He didn't have any real armor and only had a pistol in hand. He was most likely just a technician.

"Drop it!" Shepard shouted.

The man quickly turned around and raised his pistol but Shepard charged him with her biotics, moving her like a bullet. The technician was killed instantly as he went flying into a reinforced glass wall overlooking Jack's cryo cell.

"Our back is clear for now... You okay Shepard?" Jacob asked as both Miranda and him entered the room.

Shepard was using the console as support so she could catch her breath.

"Still trying to get used to my implant." Shepard responded finally catching it.

"Not much you can do other than keep using them as you are now. Like working a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it should be." Miranda said as she locked the door behind her.

Shepard knew that but appreciated the advice. She moved to get a better look at the console.

"From what I can tell this console controls Jack's cell, if we just-" Shepard stopped as an error popped up on screen.

" _It seems the human disconnected the console from the network."_ Sail stated over comms.

"Anywhere else to open it up?" Shepard asked.

" _There are no manual ways to release them from cryo."_ EDI answered next.

A few seconds passed as Shepard went through her options. The Blue Suns were concentrating on her team at the moment, it wouldn't take them long to set up better if she went back the way she came.

"How are the others doing?" If they weren't doing well she would have been informed but she wanted an update.

" _They have secured the docking area. Zaeed has suffered a minor injury. Stonewire sent him back to the Normandy and is keeping watch with Garrus."_ Sail stated.

Shepard was glad the Normandy was okay. Not that she didn't care about Zaeed but if the Normandy was lost there wouldn't be a solid way to escape.

" _I would like to suggest something Shepard."_ Sail said.

"What you got?"

" _While there is no console connected to the chamber and no timely way to reconnect, it is linked with the other cells. The only problem is that using them to release Jack would also activate the other cells of this block, releasing the prisoners."_ Sail informed.

That actually would solved most of the problems, but it would also add a few more.

"Do it." Shepard ordered.

* * *

Stonewire's hand had stopped shaking which allowed him to use his rifle. Which made him feel better about standing guard. Zaeed was clipped in the shoulder when he tried to grab more ammo from a downed Turian merc. It wasn't bad but he wasn't going to shoot straight until treated properly.

Stonewire called up Vakarian. Like Shepard had said, he was injured and still healing but Stone could tell that the damage wouldn't impact his abilities.

Sail informed them a few minutes ago about the release of prisoners. It sounded good to him, not many mercs came his way after awhile, he assumed that Shepard was causing a ruckus. One or two groups would show up but they were easily taken out. Stonewire understood why, they weren't equipped or trained for even ground fighting. They fought light as to minimize risk of prisoners getting a hold of something more dangerous.

The point was that Shepard had most of the attention and the prisoners would pull some of that away.

Sail informed Stone of the human female known as Jack literally tearing through the station. From what he was told she would be heading their way. It sounded like the station was suffering more than just Jack, the other prisoners are probably just as bad.

"Inform. It seems that Jack is going to be heading this way." Stonewire notified as he re-adjusted his rifle aiming down the corridor behind a create he recently moved.

"Is that good news or bad?" The Turian asked.

" _Response. Both. Explain. Cuts the trip if she makes it here unharmed, bad news is that we're both wearing blue and from what I've been told she is killing everything in her path."_ The Glitch explained.

That seemed to stun Garrus as the thought of a biotic rampaging through a space station caused a rise of anxiety.

"I'm guessing color doesn't matter to her." Garrus said pointing out that they both wear blue armor similar to the Blue Suns.

Not wrong but they both knew that anger could blind even the most observant.

" _Inquire. You have use of concussive rounds, correct?"_ Stonewire questioned.

"Always have them on hand, why?" Garrus asked, wondering what the AI was planning.

" _Clarify. Concussive shots and warp ammo have the highest success rate against barriers, if she shows hostility you will need to hit hard and not miss."_

"Missing won't be a problem but isn't she supposed to be the strongest human biotic? I doubt she will go down in a couple of shots."

" _Explain. We'll double team her, I'll keep her off you while giving you openings."_

"Sounds like a plan." Garrus wasn't sure of the details but it seemed like Stonewire already planned it all out.

 _"Inform. Shepard is currently cutting through the prisoners to catch up with Jack but Sail says she a bit behind."_

"Damn. I don't envy her, prisons aren't fun to fight through."

 _"Inquire. Is anything?"_

"Gardens. Electronic shops. Antique stores, but only if they're classy."

They heard explosions but they sounded further. EDI told them that some prisoners had gotten access to other blocks, releasing more prisoners. Stonewire saw little chance of recovery for the prison.

Serves them right.

Soon both of them noticed a bald, tattooed female rushing at them. She matched the description Sail had given them. Though, he was still a bit surprised at the half naked look. The only thing covering her chest looked like a belt that extended up around her neck. A human thing, for sure.

Garrus was going to try to speak before things could get out of hand, but in one motion both of them were sent flying back by a blue wave of energy.

"Out of my way, assholes!" The woman yelled.

Garrus hit the ground and slid for a second before coming to a stop but quickly picked himself back up. Stonewire on the other hand wasn't thrown as far and landed on his feet sliding much less than Garrus.

Stonewire knew he was hit with the same force but it didn't impact as hard. He noted the energy that hit him almost seemed to disappear but still applied some force.

" _Order. Sail, observe armor stats."_ He didn't know what was causing this but his armor was a good start.

Stone quickly holstered his weapon and sprinted at Jack. This was his first time against a biotic user, she may be the strongest but he couldn't risk killing her with normal firearms, he needed Garrus for that. Besides, he needed to know what to expect from biotic users, why not from the strongest?

Jack was surprised at the sudden charge at her but just as fast became frustrated at the challenge. Jack pulled her arm behind and as she pulled in more dark energy and blasted it at her adversary.

Stonewire decided to give Sail more data by taking the hit straight on but this time taking a more balanced stance as the force hit him. As predicted the energy that hit him seemed to be absorbed and it only pushed him back a few feet along the floor. Garrus fired a concussive shot as the energy threw his aim off center, nicking her shoulder.

" _It seems that your armor is drawing in the dark energy, but I would refrain from taking any more hits."_ Sail started to explain.

Stone blinked to the left of Jack as she tried to put him in stasis allowing Garrus another shot, this time center mass. Stonewire was surprised how Jack telegraphed her moves. It was too easy for him to read her intentions.

" _The energy seems to be leaking off but if it builds up-"_

Before Jack could comprehend how Stonewire closed the distance he connected a jab in her side causing her to buckle, before blinking a few feet away. Garrus took the opening and hit her center mass again, causing her to stumble back.

" _-you will end up taking the brunt of any other biotic attack."_

Stonewire closed the distance once more taking advantage of her slip up, but she pulled back her right hand to her left at the last moment for another biotic attack. The Glitch wanted to see if he could physical stop the attack, so he went to grab the wrist and elbow but the force was already built up and it almost seemed like he couldn't get a grip.

"Hands off!" She shouted.

The force of the strike wasn't as strong as the last but it seemed to have more of an effect on Stone sending him straight into a wall. Before Garrus could fire again Jack sent a shockwave at him throwing him into the ceiling knocking him unconscious as he fell back to the floor.

Jack went to run for the docked ship before noticing a familiar symbol painted on the side of the vessel.

"Cerberus." She said under her breath, laced with hatred.

Stonewire pushed himself from the floor and tried to steady himself as Jack turned to him with hate filled eyes.

"What the hell do you want from me!?" she cried out before sending another biotic attack.

Things were getting dangerous now that Garrus was down, so Stonewire had to handle this on his own. He blinked past the wave of energy and appeared crouched in front of jack before he popped up connecting the top of his helm to her chin sending her reeling back.

She swung her left hand wide for a biotic punch but missed as Stone ducked out of the way. He couldn't risk taking a single hit.

As soon as the swing passed he delivered an elbow to the right side of her chin followed with another jab like before. Biotics take concentration, if he kept her disorientated he could win.

She shouted as she swung with both hands back towards him. Stonewire again blinked behind her, out of the path but he saw the damage as the energy teared through a nearby wall. He had to end this fight quickly.

Stonewire brought his heel down on the back of her knee and as soon as she was low enough he wrapped his forearm around her neck. She tried to pry his arm off but he already secured it with his other hand. Stonewire was sure the fight was over but then Jack started to glow.

" _Realization. Ah crap."_

In a blast of biotic energy Stonewire was thrown into the reinforced glass behind him with enough force to crack it and knock him out. Jack got back to her feet coughing as she tried to catch her breath.

She was completely exhausted, she couldn't even bring a new barrier up. It was like the guy was draining her every time he got close. The adrenaline in her system was the only thing keeping her standing.

"Jack!" She heard a female voice shout from the way she came.

Shepard felt like her heart was going to shot out her chest when she saw Stonewire and Garrus knocked down. She managed to calm down when she noticed Garrus' chest rise. She wasn't sure about Stonewire or about the strange glow from his armor but one problem at a time.

"What the hell do you want?" Jack rudely asked.

* * *

Sail informed Shepard that Stonewire was just unconscious with no serious injury as they carried him to the infirmary. Luckily Garrus was even better off as he got up after Shepard convinced Jack to join her mission.

Dr. Karin Chakwas was quick to voice her opinion on the matter.

"I'm a doctor, Shepard, not an engineer."

" _He requires no medical need, only a steady hand."_ Sail stated while Shepard and Jacob put Stone on one of the infirmary beds with Garrus following close behind.

"That I can do, what do we need?" Chakwas asked.

" _While he has not suffered any life threatening injuries I would like to wake him up. Shepard, if you would kindly remove his helmet."_

Shepard followed through and placed the helm to the side revealing Stonewire's darkened visor and his neck that looked like a metal venting hose.

"Wouldn't he just wake up on his own?" Shepard asked.

" _Stonewire has suffered a concussion, the system in his head is well protected but just like any brain it can be damaged from inside. A small shock should wake him with little harm and allow evaluation. Doctor Chakwas, use you're omni-tool to give five milliamps shock where the lesser occipital nerve would be located on a human."_

Sail was feeling uneasy, she would usually just use the armor to monitor him but they were overloaded by the energy Jack threw out. She disliked not knowing things.

Sail observed Shepard's use of biotics before and it seemed similar to the staffs used in combat in their galaxy. Sail already hypothesized why but she would need to talk to Stone about it more.

Karin moved to the side of Stone while making the proper adjustments to her omni-tool before carefully placing it on the side of his metal neck. As soon as the shock went through Stonewire's eyes lit up. At the same time he immediately sat up almost headbutting the doctor causing her to move back.

Shepard almost made a joke about him "booting up" before she noticed the quick turns of his head with a fully red visor and rising of his shoulders and chest.

He's hyperventilating.

Just as suddenly it came his visor returned to the normal blue and he stopped breathing. He's head turned to Shepard.

"You alright, Stone?" Shepard asked with a worried tone.

" _Inquire. Did we complete the mission?"_ He asked.

Shepard couldn't really understand, at some points he seemed so close to being normal but others it was cold.

"Yeah, we managed to get Jack on our side. Of course that's only if I can convince Miranda to agree to giving her some Cerberus info." She stated a bit annoyed.

The Glitch didn't say anything as he got up from the bed and grabbed his helmet. Jacob still seemed a bit on edge from the AI's behavior.

Garrus was leaning in the doorway for support as Stone approached.

"So, heard you took a hell of a hit, didn't shake any parts loose did it?" Garrus said trying to lighten the mood.

Stonewire stopped at the door and looked up to Garrus who was at least half a foot taller than him.

" _Jest. I saw you get thrown into the ceiling, if anyone need to make sure their parts are in the right place, it's you."_

Garrus let out a short chuckle as Stonewire continued through the door.

A strange silence fell over the room.

"Well, that was interesting. Garrus if you would please take a seat." Dr. Chakwas said, breaking the quiet atmosphere.

"I'm fine doc, Just wanted to make sure our metal friend was still in one piece." Garrus joked only to groan as he pushed off the doorway holding his side.

"Take a seat, Vakarian." The good doctor practically ordered leaving no room for argument.

"Mind if I stick around? Need to debrief him." Shepard asked while dismissing Jacob with a wave of her hand.

"Not at all, Commander."

Shepard moved to Garrus' side and put a more serious look.

She was going to question Stone later but for now, she wanted to hear about what Garrus might have seen.

* * *

The second Stonewire entered the elevator and selected the hangar floor he slipped his helmet back on and put his back to the wall.

" _Are you alright?"_ Sail asked.

Sail's only seen Stone interact with a few people in all their years. If he had a face that could show emotions he would be easier to read but with how it was it's impossible to tell. Other races see Glitch as easy to read by voice but if the Glitch picks the right words, they become just as inclosed as any other race.

" _Evasion. What happened with my armor?"_ Stonewire asked.

Of course, the Glitch have no idea about the words they use and sometimes things slip through.

" _We'll go over it once we're in the shuttle."_

 **0o0o0o0o0**

 **Wow, this chapter took a while and for good reason**

 **To be honest I wanted to cut it in half but in the end decided against it**

 **I don't want too many chapters like this as it feels like it'll run me dry**

 **This is a hobby after all, I'd hate to turn this into work rather than fun**

 **Anyway, just like any other chapter you know what I want**

 **Review/Follow**


	11. Under the Chassis

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" _Ask for help."_ Sail practically demanded.

" _Insist. It's not that bad, I've dealt with a leg that was worse than this."_ Stonewire protested.

" _I agree, but back then you had the use of both hands. We're not alone, let me see if they have a skilled engineer."_

She was right and he knew it, but he just didn't like the idea of anyone other than another Glitch looking at his insides, even if it was just his wrist. He had an anesthetic spray that he was currently looking for on his shuttle that would help numb his arm. It would allow him to work without discomfort, but like Sail said, without the use of both hands it would take him awhile to find and fix the problem with a higher chance of error.

" _Reluctant. Fine, but until then I'm setting up."_ He stated as he pulled a spray can from one of his crates.

* * *

"You don't find it even a bit off putting that we're one elevator ride away from an artificial intelligence, with a body no less?" A relatively young ginger man with a goatee named Kenneth Donnelly asked with a light Scottish accent.

"You do remember that Normandy has its own AI or maybe the psychopath that now lives right below us?" A female with short dark red hair of about the same age named Gabriella Daniels reminded.

"Aye, but she's got that punker-girl charm about her, and the robot might start mucking with our work!"

"Jack could probably do more damage than anyone here." Gabby said, scolding her coworker. " Shepard seems to trust it, the least we can do is trust her. Besides, think about what we could learn. We've dealt with Geth before, but it has a more human resemblance. We don't even know who built it."

"You've seen it?" Kenneth asked sounding more interested than concerned.

"You haven't?"

"Only heard the crew talk about it. Saw the shuttle, but never got a look at it myself."

"I saw it unpacking some equipment a few hours after its arrival. Looked like it was also fixing up the shuttle."

" _Engineers Donnelly and Daniels, may I speak with you?"_ A voice they thought was EDI asked.

They turned to the holoprojector expecting to see EDI's familiar round blue hologram only to be greeted by a translucent head missing most of its features.

"Going with a new look EDI? A bit intimidating, don't ya think, with all the red?" Donnelly questioned.

"I don't think this is EDI." Daniels corrected. "Almost forgot there was a third AI." She recalled.

" _Correct, my name is Sail. I have a proposition for either of you."_ Sail offered.

"This should be interesting. An AI asking for help." The male engineer said with a smirk.

"As long as it doesn't put us at any unnecessary risk, I'm sure we could handle it." Daniels stated while elbowing her coworker.

" _It's much simpler than that. Stonewire, 'one elevator ride away', is conducting some self repairs and could use an extra pair of hands. Would either of you be willing? It's pretty simple engineering and shouldn't take too long."_ Sail explained, putting emphasis on the words the male human used before, letting them know she heard that part of the conversation.

EDI didn't seem to mind letting Sail roam under surveillance, but that didn't stop her curiosity from wondering what others thought of her and Stone.

The only one that seemed to notice was the female as she tried to avoid eye contact with the hologram, unlike the male who only seemed to hear the words "repair."

"You're asking us, the two best engineers on the Normandy, if we would like to help repair an AI we've never seen before that, if my colleague is to be believed, is built differently than any mech we've seen?" Kenneth asked sarcastically.

"What he's trying to say is that we would be glad to help." Gabriella clarified, trying to save face.

"Uh, yeah, what she said."

" _Well, Stonewire only requires one of you, and as Daniels seems to be more straight to the point, I think Stone would appreciate that. You don't need to bring anything, but I would recommend haste as he's probably already gotten started."_ Sail explained sounding a bit annoyed at the end before disconnecting, leaving no room for argument.

Kenneth immediately deflated. "Well, guess that means you should get going. Wouldn't want to miss the chance, would you?" He asked sounding despondent as he returned to work. "Don't worry about me, just going to make sure we keep flyin' straight."

"Don't be like that. I'll make sure to tell you all the details." Gabriella promised, trying to cheer him up just a little.

That seemed to get his attention as he turned around with a glint of hope in his eyes as he pointed at her."Every detail?" He asked hopefully.

"Everything I see, but you heard what she said, need to get down there before it doesn't need my help."

"Well don't keep 'em waiting, go!" Kenneth resounded as he shooed her away with a stupid grin on his face.

With that, Gabriella hurried to the elevator and called it to her floor, only taking a glance at the window near the elevator that looked down on the hangar. She could see the AI down below setting one crate on top another, making a makeshift table.

When she heard the elevator door open she was surprised to see Shepard.

Well, only sort of. For the most part Daniels was used to her superiors not bothering to chat with their subordinates, but from what she knew about Shepard she had a feeling she would. To which Shepard proved her right by coming down to greet them on the day the Commander boarded the Normandy.

What currently surprised her was the serious expression the Commander had on her face. Only time she's seen a look before was on the Commander of the SSV Perugia, the vessel she served on before, when they were protecting the council during the attack on the Citadel.

The Commander took notice of Daniels and her features softened, if only a little. "Engineer Daniels." Shepard greeted.

"Commander." Daniels replied.

She stepped onto the elevator next to Shepard and went to press the cargo hold button, only to notice it was already selected. There was no real reason for the Commander to head down there. Except for maybe the AI.

"Going down?" Shepard asked as the doors closed.

"Well-" Gabriella started, she then went on to explain what Sail invited her to do. That seemed to catch the Commanders attention.

"Mind If I keep you company?" Shepard asked with a disarming smile.

* * *

Stonewire set up like he said he was going to, he had two crates stacked to make a stable table, he removed his armor to work less restricted. The human who was suppose to be helping him was taking their time.

He had already applied the anesthetic to his right arm and opened it up. The nanites were working slower around the numb area so they wouldn't impede his work. He opened it up, exposing the wiring underneath.

He wasn't wrong when he assumed that the wires overheated, as he could already see some of them melted together and others were just a complete mess.

Using a single hand to go through the wiring was working, but sometimes he would hit a wire and cause-

" _Frustration! Damnit!"_ Stonewire shouted as sparks flew from some exposed wires.

" _You really should wait."_ Sail knowingly stated through his manipulator.

He had his wrist manipulator set up so he could look at it while he worked, mostly just so Sail could keep him company since he removed his armor. He was starting to regret that decision.

" _Argue. If I keep waiting I'll never get this done."_ Stonewire defended weakly.

" _Just try not to blow your arm off."_ Sail teased, referring to his other works.

" _Knowing. Yeah, I get it."_

In all honesty he was just trying to keep busy. He didn't really want to get started on other projects while his arm could still act up, so he needed to do that first, but he didn't really like relying on anyone he didn't know for something so personal.

As he was about to delve back into his arm he heard the elevator door open. He looked up to see both Shepard and another female human inside. Both stepped off and were heading in his direction.

Stonewire reached over to his manipulator and sent Sail a message.

" _Any idea?"_

" _Not a clue."_ Sail quickly replied through text.

Sail already told him who the second female was when she requested them. A gifted engineer to put it simply with little tidbits, like how she was at the "Battle of the Citadel."

He didn't like the idea of being out of the loop, but with everything going on he was really getting tired of it all. He didn't spend over a hundred years trying to understanding his own universe just to get thrown into a new one, but here he was. He liked it better when he knew a large portion of things. Now he just felt like he was stumbling in the dark with only the codex to shed light, but his assassin side of things was used to working with little info.

What did that say about him?

"Um, hello? You asked for help?"

Stonewire was shaken from his thoughts as he looked up to the human across him. She's a redhead like Shepard, but with much softer features. Same build too just from seeing them next to each other.

" _Greet. Hello."_ Stonewire simply welcomed while gesturing to the seat he setup opposite of him.

The human took the seat and almost seemed to lock onto his open arm. Shepard stood nearby, strangely quiet, but he wouldn't let it bother him.

What was she planning?

"Hmm," Stonewire could tell the engineer was holding back a lot of questions, not surprising for any respectable engineer. "What's the problem? Just from a glance it looks like some overheating."

" _Explain. Pretty basic hardware failure, thermal stress occurred and this arm's inner workings are a little older than my other."_ He explain.

It wasn't too recent, but he did damage his left arm pretty badly on a mission. So he had to find a Glitch willing to help him access his half of the blueprints for replacement parts. It was the exact copy of his right, but it still had a newer feel if anything else.

He instantly dreaded the thought of something like that happening here. If he became exceedingly damaged no engineer would be able to replicate his parts, at least not completely. He was starting to tolerate the idea of letting someone at least know a little about his inner workings. For the most part the most advance part about a Glitch is their programming, but that's not to say that their mechanics aren't as complicated.

" _Convey. The heat damaged this here,-"_ He started pointing out some of the wiring, cleaner than before. " _-here and here. Instruct. I already removed the insulating coating, but now-"_

"You need to solder the wires back together, got it." The human finished for him, now eyeing his tools. "Those would probably help." She said, pointing out the correct tools.

Stonewire expected that. Surprisingly his tools were somewhat compatible with the mechanics of this world and unless taken apart couldn't be distinguished from theirs, so he didn't really need to change. Not to say that he didn't shop on Omega to get some tools designed for mess effect technology.

Stonewire picked up two soldering tools and handed them to her.

" _Clarify. Try not to damage the wiring further, This task requires both hands and I would like to keep mine intact."_

* * *

Stonewire was impressed.

The girl asked lots of questions, less than a few he was comfortable with, but he answered to the best of his ability as there was some stuff about his creation that he didn't even know.

But even with all the questions she almost seemed to take to his mechanics like a hylotl to water. Work hasn't been this smooth for him in awhile.

A bit surprising, fixing a Glitch isn't the hardest task, building one on the other hand was a entirely different problem. Still, there was more damage than Stonewire thought there would be, but they were going through it pretty fast.

"You know I've got to ask. How was it that you managed to only damage this part? Seems kind of odd for overheating to only affect one part." Gabriella questioned.

" _Simplify. This arm is older than most other parts of me."_ He answered.

"How many parts have you had replaced?" Shepard suddenly asked. That was the first time she's spoke since she started watching them.

Well, watching them wouldn't be the word. It was more like she was studying him. He could tell because it was the kind of thing the Infernal Recruiters did, pulling every detail in hoping to see a crack in the façade if one was present, couldn't have any "Sick" amongst the flames. He wasn't putting up any front, but it still put him on edge.

So he just tried to ignore it and answer the question.

How many? Well each part could last up to eighty years before degradation started to show, excluding his plating. Though his plating has been damaged he did manage to avoid needing to replace it completely, which would be like trying to replace skin.

He has about the same amount of human vital organs, but there are a few he doesn't use much. So that leaves about five organs in constant use, one of which being the brain, which he can't replace. Then there's his normal parts. He couldn't forget that he also pushed these parts to their limits, breaking them down faster. Just to simplify it he would include parts that needed to be fixed that the nanites couldn't repair properly.

" _Indifferent. Including repairs, that would be around one-hundred and seventeen over the past two-hundred years."_ Stonewire answered honestly.

There was no real point in lying, he's a robot, repairs are needed as much as any other race that might need surgery.

"Huh, what kind of work would you be doing to need that many repairs? I'm pretty sure even Geth need less maintenance." The engineer said, seeming surprised by the number.

"Yeah, what kind of work?" Shepard asked suspiciously.

" _Equivocate. I was put through a lot of strain."_ He wasn't lying.

Shepard was confused. He just used "equivocate" meaning to "avoid an issue." So he was withholding information from her and that's one thing the Commander wouldn't stand for. So instead of treating him like an AI, she would try to treat him as a person.

"Don't fuck with me." Shepard said sternly as she crossed her arms. "You're hiding something, I don't know whether or not it will affect the mission, but if we can't trust each other it will only make things more difficult." She needed to take care of this problem now.

There was a pause as the assassin looked to his armor. " _Hesitant. But what if the truth only complicates things further?"_ Stonewire questioned.

"Hiding it will only put your mind towards other things, I need everyone at one hundred percent, anything less pushes this mission towards failure."

Stonewire listen to her words. She was right, he couldn't keep this up. Honestly maybe his assassin side just wanted to keep secrets, but this wasn't an assassination. He needed to keep his head on straight.

He looked down to his arm, the wiring was clean and he was starting to feel again. So he started putting the plating back and allowed the nineties to reconnect it.

So... The truth.

" _Sincere. To understand the truth I'll need to explain everything. Inquiry. Are you sure?"_ He asked.

"Daniels, I think you should return to your post." Shepard politely suggested, seeing that the repairs were done.

"Understood commander." Gabriella said with a salute, to which Shepard returned before taking her spot.

Stonewire looked down to his manipulator. "I'm right here." was the message on the screen. Those three words somehow made him feel more at ease.

" _Define. 'Glitch', a word with two meanings. Convey. Glitch were created to simulate the rise and fall of civilization, who created us, we don't know, but something went wrong. Describe. Some of those civilizations got stuck in a loop, they couldn't develop any further into cultural refinement. Detail. The place we got stuck in was what the humans would call the 'medieval ages.'"_ He added, noticing Shepard look towards his armor with a slight look of realization.

Good, it was making sense so far, but he wasn't done.

" _Recall. Sail told you of my 'sickness.' Irked. That was the second glitch, it awakened some of my kind."_

"You became true AI." Shepard stated.

" _Rectify. No, my kind are born true AI."_ He quickly corrected. " _Bitter. Our 'creators' programmed 'blind spots' that stopped us from seeing ahead of our programmed stage, so we couldn't see past the stone castles and agrarian villages, some broke free of this coding. Recollect. But it didn't just wake us up, it also made use yearn for more, to reach for the stars."_

Shepard felt like she wasn't going to like this story. Things like people suddenly going against the grain usually didn't end well, but she still wanted to know where this was going.

"What happened?" The words left her mouth before she could stop them.

Stonewire could hear the worry in her voice.

" _Recall. I awoke on my tenth year since assembly, but so did some older models. Recall. I lived in a large kingdom, known as Infernoctis. Explain. The kingdom had a... theme, if you will, of fire. Bitter. The king was a psychopath, smart, but a psychopath. Disgusted. We heard of other kingdoms with the sickness, we never thought it would hit ours, but when it did the king ordered the sick to be cleansed in fire."_ As soon as those words were spoken Shepard's eyebrows raised at the insinuation.

"Wait, wouldn't it take some serious heat to burn through you?" The Commander questioned, unsure of what he was implying.

" _Agreed. Correct, it would. Explain. The kingdom was known for its craft in heat based weapons that could cut through even the strongest of minerals. Honest. With that came liquids that, when lit, could burn through our plating like cheap tin."_

Shepard watched as his visor went completely red. " _Hateful. They broke the loop and they burned for it."_ He hated the king, but the sick... None of it would have happened if they didn't awaken.

"How did you survive?" Shepard asked.

" _Sorrow. The king made a show of what would happen to those afflicted, those that broke the loop, I was... I... I needed to..."_ He just couldn't.

The image of his own kind, tied to metal poles, melting as the heat burned through them. He couldn't tell the difference between the metal screeching and the cries of pain as the their speaker boxes began to liquefy. The plating would break up as oil began to leak out from between the seams. He could never forget the smell of the oil in the air, he swore the skies were darkened for months with smog.

Sail could see him, arms on top of the crate, closed fist, shaking. She wanted to reach out, she wanted to comfort her creator, her father. what could she do?

She processed that thought faster than any she had before, but Shepard beat her to it.

Shepard reached out and put her hand on top of his, the shaking immediately stopped.

"Stone?" She asked, worry filled her voice.

His head snapped up to face hers, with the two familiar blue lights from his visor.

" _Frightened. I wanted to live."_ It took a few seconds, but he managed to calm down.

He couldn't believe that it still messed with him this much, guess that was the down side of a robotic memory.

He only now seemed to notice Shepard's hand. " _Reassured. I'm better now Shepard. Grateful. Thank you."_

Shepard pulled away, but still looked worried. "Are you sure?"

" _Certain. Yes, I'm fine, but if you don't mind, I'd like to skip over a few things. Troubled. I guess I'm not over it yet."_

No kidding, Shepard seen soldiers break on the field before, a simple interaction could bring them back to reality be it violent or gentle, but to have reactions like that would mean an even deeper trauma. If anything she could tell it seemed like he just wanted to bury it.

"Yeah, no problem." Shepard assured.

Just one word: Frightened. That's all it took for Shepard to see more than just a machine. It would still take time for her to get used to an AI that didn't want her dead, but she at the very least knew that he was more than that.

He didn't want to talk about his past anymore, he'd rather just skip over it completely. She didn't need to know about his whole life story, just the important bits. So what's next?

" _Convey. Twenty years passed before I managed to find a downed ship, repair it and leave the planet."_

"Twenty years? That still leaves a lot of space." Shepard questioned. "How did you manage to stay undetected this whole time?"

Well, it was going to happen one way or another, so why not now.

" _Honest. I didn't remain undetectable. Explain. At the time I was lost, I didn't know where to go or what to do, but three years later I found an outpost. Rehash. Well, more of a city really. Describe. It's what many of the races called home and used as a resting place when there was no work, they didn't want to go home or maybe they worked there themselves. Recount. That is where I found a job as a bounty hunter."_ He explained.

Shepard was enthralled in the story, but something wasn't adding up.

"Wait, that doesn't make any sense, the only place like that is the Citadel. Have you been there before?" She asked, hoping for clarification.

" _Honest. I've never been to the Citadel. Forthright. Matter-of-fact I've only been in this galaxy for about a week and a half."_ And the truth was out, honestly she was right about it being a bit distracting, and now that he's said it, he feels like a weight was lifted off his shoulders.

Shepard on the other hand felt like she just had a bomb drop into her lap and it hasn't gone off yet.

"What?" Honestly, she didn't know what else to say.

" _Request. Please wait a moment."_ Stonewire stood up and walked into his shuttle.

Less than a minute later he came back cradling a rifle in his arm. Shepard immediately noticed that the rifle slick design could in no way collapse like her weapons, but that wasn't exactly proof of coming from another galaxy.

Then he pulled a small metal cylindrical object about the size of a thermal clip. " _Blunt. This is a plasma rifle. Describe. This is the one I used to cover you on the bridge, it's equipped with an adjustable twelve times scope, Being stuck center-mass could rupture organs, and if that doesn't kill, the super-heated plasma would burn through just about anything."_

With that he slammed the cylinder into an opening on the side of the rifle, which closed right after, and spun the rifle into a ready position against his shoulder, aiming right at his armor.

"Wait-" The last thing she needed was him firing his weapon on her ship, but she was completely ignored as a loud crack sounded through the hangar as a red thin light flashed from the barrel of the rifle almost instantly into his armor. The sound was notably less intense than she expected it to be.

That's not to say that it wasn't fucking loud!

Shepard stood up only to see Stone set the rifle down on the makeshift table after removing the cylinder.

"Hey, commander, I hope I'm not interrupting, but why is the robot firing its weapon on my ship?" The pilot, Joker, asked over the ship speakers sounding every bit annoyed.

"It's okay, Joker!" Shepard shouted, trying to stop the slight ringing in her ears before addressing the AI.

"Refrain from doing that again." Shepard practically ordered.

" _Apologetic. Sorry commander, I would have used a smaller firearm, but I thought it better for you to see something from before."_ He explained as he picked the the chest piece of his armor up and placed it in front of her.

Shepard what she saw was a fire red, liquid like substance sticking to it, she could feel the heat radiating from it, but she watched as it slowly turned to vapor, leaving behind a ash like burn mark. Stonewire took out a rag and simply wiped off the residue. He then tossed Shepard the cylinder.

Stonewire knew his armor could take it. It took an Atomic Furnace just to refine the stuff his armor was made of, so naturally it had high heat resistance. It was one of the reasons he used the same super-heated plasma rifle that he used on the bridge. It also helped that the battery he used was almost out, so the charge was much, much lower.

" _Explain. That is the ammo for the rifle and many of my other firearms. Describe. It acts as a catalyst or a battery as it's useless and harmless without a weapon to allow it to charge. Simplify. There is a capacity inside of the catalyst that is overcharged to create the plasma before a magnetic field inside the weapon pushes the plasma through like a bullet, at least that's how it works for this rifle. Detail. My rifle uses more plasma so it has less shots while a plasma pistol would have more shots as it charges less."_ He had no trouble talking about his equipment. If anything he enjoyed it.

"Okay, say I believe you. That you came from another galaxy. How?" Shepard couldn't really say that she didn't believe him. How could she not, when all the evidence kept stacking up. But she needed to remain skeptical.

" _Precise. Not another galaxy, Shepard, another universe. Sincere. I just finished a job on a small desert planet, after we decided to change scenery. Exact. We ended up jumping right in the middle of a battle and a large one at that. Unfavorable. We managed to avoid damage, but then we were targeted by a Dreadnought._

" _Hypothesis. We took out its engine, but something happened inside, my guess is that the reactor took a hit, debris from the explosion tore through our ship and damaged the jump drive. Conclusion. And that is how we ended up here, I told Cerberus that my ship is out of commission, but that wasn't the completely truth. Honest. My ship is well hidden at the moment, in fact I was hoping that at some point I might be able to finish repairs or even find proper fuel as our ships are completely different."_ There it was, he laid everything out.

"You said that you came from a different universe, but wouldn't it make more sense to say that you did just come to another galaxy across dark space?" It made more sense to her and it even sounded more logical.

" _I can help with that."_ Sail piped up.

Shepard was kind of surprised by Sail suddenly speaking up, not realizing she was there the whole time.

Two blue hologram star maps appeared above Stonewire's manipulator, both looked identical to each other.

" _A lot of my systems were damaged including my Star Map, so after bringing up the backups I triangulated our position. It said we were in the Milky Way galaxy, but there were oddities."_ One of the holograms started blinking yellow. " _This one is one we visited a long time ago, where Stone's first bounty mission took him."_ Suddenly both maps zoomed in on one system, Shepard recognized them, the Sol system, home of... wait, something was missing " _The most notable difference I found was-"_

"Where's Earth?" Shepard couldn't see it on the one they said was theirs. "Different universe, right? Does that mean you don't have humans?" There had to be a rational explanation. They already told her how they came from a different universe so it wouldn't be far fetched for them to be different.

" _Explanation. No, humans were once the most prevalent race in the galaxies, still kind of are, but to a lesser extent."_ Stonewire tried to explain. It wasn't her world, but to hear that couldn't be easy.

"What happened?" Shepard seemed to demand. Stonewire wasn't too sure, but did her scars just glow?

" _Delicate. Our Earth was destroyed over two hundred years ago, I wasn't there for it, but the monster that did it was shortly killed a year after. Empathy. Many humans survi-"_

"How could something destroy a whole planet?!" She seemed more dumbfounded, if not also sick to her stomach.

" _Deadpan. It happened in another universe and ended a long time ago, Shepard, I understand, but it's over and done, you have other things to worry about."_ He could understand the sentiment, but she had a mission.

She looked pissed, but after a few seconds and a deep breath, she released a sigh and calmed down. "Okay, so you came from another universe. Care to explain what happened with your armor when fighting Jack." All she wanted to do now was get past that bombshell, maybe she could ask more questions later.

" _Excited. Oh, I think it would be better to show you."_ With that Stonewire quickly picked up his armor and, faster than Shepard thought possible, threw it all on in under thirty seconds, excluding the helmet.

" _Thrilled. I only found this out today and Sail explained it to me. Aware. You're a biotic, correct?"_ He patted his chest with both hands. " _Instigate. Hit me with your best shot."_

"Are you sure about that?" She was curious, but curiosity wouldn't be worth injuring a crew member, but all she got was a nod.

Well, Zaeed did say something about practice.

With that Shepard pulled back both her arms and allowed her biotic energy to flow freely throughout her body. Usually she only needed to conduct it with her hands or manipulate it around her for a barrier, but now she needed to allow it to consume her and time it right.

She forced herself forward, charging at Stonewire. She allowed the momentum to carry her as she thrusted her arms forward to push him, but something happened as she made contact.

No, even before she started moving. She could feel her energy being pulled from her.

She only noticed it when she collided with Stonewire, sending him back only a few feet. The force only made him have to brace himself from falling, but it should have been enough force to send him to the ground.

" _The material that you call eezo or Element Zero is similar to a material from our galaxy. It's known as Ferozium, a material that has some of the same characteristics as eezo, but has one core difference. Eezo seems to almost pulse with dark energy when subjected to an electrical current. Ferozium, even without an electrical current, seems to absorb raw dark energy, which is something biotics seem to be able to produce a lot of."_ Sail quickly explained.

" _Though we don't have any with us Stone has built staffs that could do almost exactly what biotics can do, only to a lesser extent and not on it's own."_ As she kept explaining the energy from Stonewire's armor started to fade. " _It appears that Refined Ferozium can't hold onto this energy, as it seems to leak off. While it does absorb a large amount of energy, it doesn't stop the full brunt of an attack."_

Stonewire stepped over to his manipulator and started running scans on his armor. It was useful as a defence against biotics, but he was wondering if he could do anything with the built up energy.

"Still, that sounds extremely useful." Shepard admitted.

A biotic barrier helped against other biotics for the most part, but something like Stonewire's armor for someone without biotic abilities could really make a difference. Hell, from what Garrus said he saw Stone take a few hits directly, being barely moved. Stonewire might have won if they weren't there to recruit her.

Still, now that she knew where he came from, she had one more question.

"So what's the plan?" She asked.

Stonewire looked up from his manipulator and tilted his head to the side.

" _Confused. Shouldn't I be the one asking that, Commander?"_ He asked, not really getting the question.

"No, what I meant is, are you trying to get home somehow? I doubt Cerberus could help in any way." She rephrased.

" _Admit. Getting here was nothing but luck, realistically creating another jump like that could send me anywhere. Foreboding. Or worse it could just explode. Irritated. Just like a lot of things I build."_ He informed, saying the last part more to himself.

"So, you've got no problem with the idea of never returning home."

" _Uncertain. I'm fine where I am, it's not like anyone is looking for me."_ He wasn't really sure on how he felt now about not returning and it's not like he was allergic to making allies, but he just didn't really think anyone would look for him. Would they?

Not that it would matter, they wouldn't find him and would presume him to be dead.

Shepard was started to understand how his prefix worked. A single-word statement of emotion or intent that always gave him away no matter what, but there's one prefix she has never heard.

"How come you never lie?" She question. She's never heard him use the word once. It would have given him away, but she wanted to hear it from him.

" _Quote. 'If you tell a lie, you'll have to remember that lie for your whole life.' Sincere. I've been told that my kind are horrible liars, but before that my father said it many times and in a way it stuck with me. Ambitious. I guess I wanted to be just like him, so I swore to never lie."_ Stone's shoulders dropped at the thought of home.

Shepard felt a pit in her stomach. "Are you a lot like him?" She wasn't sure why she asked. Maybe it was because she lost her own parents.

Stone could hear the regret in her voice and immediately knew what she was referring to.

" _Assure. Oh, no my father wasn't an awoken. Confess. In fact, he was alive when I left, though, I'm sure he's joined mother by now. Regret. I kind of wish I could have been there at the end for him."_

"Was he an assassin too?" She wouldn't be surprised.

" _Amused. Creators no, my father never liked the idea of stabbing someone in the back. Recall. As for his profession, he was a blacksmith. Reminisce. I remember days when he wouldn't leave the forge for hours, just working a weapon to the point of perfection."_

"Man, you really did live in the middle ages huh." Shepard said with a chuckle.

" _Honest. It had its perks, it was simple. Dread. At least for awhile."_

She could understand that. One minute you're living a peaceful life when someone comes along and kicks down the wall that kept you safe.

Shepard released a sigh of relief. "Got to admit. I didn't think this conversation was going to go as well as it did. Don't get me wrong, I'm still trying to understand it all."

" _Understanding. It's a lot to take in, even I'm still trying to understand all... this."_ He said, gesturing to his surroundings.

"Yeah, I guess it would be pretty crazy." She couldn't help but chuckled again.

Maybe it was because he's an AI, but maybe their universes aren't so different. Just from the bits she could pick up it seemed like plasma weapons and some kind of world destroying monster are the only differences, the ones she knows at the moment at least. Still, ending up in a different universe doesn't sound like a common occurrence.

" _Inquire. So now what?"_ Stonewire Suddenly asked. " _Conjecture. You humans have always been an unpredictable variable, but I'm guessing this isn't something that's going to remain between us."_

"To be completely honest, I'm not sure anyone would believe you, even if I told them." She explained.

Stonewire agreed. There was only one way to quicken the process.

" _Inquire. What is our next mission?"_

"We're heading towards Daratar. Aria gave me the location as payment for helping her out. Apparently the Eclipse have a smuggling depot there. We're going to have another briefing but, basically we're going to raid it. Why?"

Stonewire picked up his rifle and locked it to his back. " _Confident. Why tell, when I can show."_

Honestly, he didn't mind this out come as much as he thought he would. It was about time he shows this universe what he's got in store.

 **0o0o0o0o0o0**

 **God, this took too long**

 **First, me and my Beta, Val the Chronicler, Spent way too long trying to understand how Starbound weapons work "FOR TWO GOD DAMN HOURS!" as Val put it. Like I stated before, Starbound's lore isn't as fleshed out as Mass Effect, so a lot of it's just me making shit up.**

 **Second, this is just a long chapter which I hope makes up for the time even though it's dialogue heavy.**

 **Until next time!**


	12. Something new, something old

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Eclipse; a mercenary group founded by an asari commando, their combat doctrine centers around the use of mechanized infantry and specialist units. They're not as disciplined as the Blue Suns, but with cutting edge equipment and weaponry, who needs discipline?

That lack of iron discipline made them dangerous, especially to those planning on robbing them.

Stonewire remembered them from the bridge while helping Garrus. They sent mechs across the bridge to kill him, something he needed to be prepared for. Not to mention that Sail discovered that they also have biotic users. They stood to be the biggest threat in open combat as they had access to a wide range of abilities. Problematic, but with the right tools it shouldn't be an issue.

Besides, mechs would be a good test for his new Maglock grenade. Stone took note of how the weapons of this universe worked by reducing the mass and used railgun technology to propel miniature slugs at lethal speed. His new invention could, in theory, increase the mass, therefore making any weapon within it's zone non-functional, similar to an EMP.

That's if it could get past the protective plating around the weapons themselves. It made sense now why Sail could not find anyway to get through it, most likely people have tried but failed. Luckily he has his own tech to incorporate into the design. He only had two as he couldn't make more until he got back to his ship, but in the face of everything else that had transpired, this was only a temporary hindrance. He thought he could make it work on shields too, but that would require more power and more power usually meant a higher chance of spontaneous combustion.

" _Briefing will be starting soon."_ Sail informed.

" _Understood. Just a minute."_ Stone replied as he slid his dagger into a sheath above his ankle.

He was still wearing his armor from before, but this time he was bringing his own tools; an electricity based plasma rifle, a fire plasma pistol, one Maglock grenade, and a sword different from the one he used before.

" _I'm unsure of how this might prove to others you are of a different universe. At most it will only increase curiosity, which has consistently proven to only cause complications."_ Sail stated.

" _Acknowledge. This is more for me than for them. Explain. I'm used to the secrets and independence, but this is an opportunity to... show them that I'm not to be underestimated. Assure. I need to make sure everything is in order-"_ Stone answered as he clenched his fist, commenting on the new wiring. " _-and to make sure these little things will do their job."_ He said as he patted the Maglock grenade locked to his belt. " _Confident. Besides, we planned this a little better than how we told Shepard, just have to leave out the destruction of earth."_

" _I'm also confident that it will at least not make us out to be of questionable sanity, but there are those who could deny even the most conclusive evidence."_ There was a notable pause. " _The Maglock should work fine, but try not to rely on it too much. Remember that they're still untested."_ Sail warned.

" _Shudder. Wouldn't dream of it."_ Stonewire admitted as unpleasant memories came to mind.

As he was about to leave he picked up one of his shotguns and an ammunition belt.

* * *

Shepard had gathered all of her ground team for briefing and was just waiting for Stonewire to show up. She thought about telling them about Stone, but decided against it. That story was his to tell however he wished. All she did was tell them that there was going to be a briefing and something Stonewire wanted to tell them.

The room was quiet, save for the idle chatter of her team, trying to kill time before whatever they were waiting on happened.

It didn't take long for the metal man to come through the doors. What she didn't expect was for him to be armed to the teeth. Literally. That by itself seemed to draw everyone's attention, putting most of them on edge. While none of the equipment on him looked familiar the most bizarre was the sword strapped to his side. She couldn't really think of why anyone would bring a sword to a firefight. Best she needed was an Omni-blade, but that was for close quarter situations.

In one hand he casually carried what looked like a shotgun with a short barrel and a pump foregrip attached to it and a belt hanging over his shoulder. He set the gun on the table with Sail's hologram appearing next to it.

" _Introduction. My name is Stonewire and I am not of your universe. Explain. My ship was damaged in combat before we needed to make an emergency jump."_

Shepard expected a lot of things but nothing as blunt as that. There was complete silence for a solid second, one could almost hear a pin drop. Stonewire continued at their silence.

" _Request. Sail."_ At that word a hologram appeared of the star-system. " _Explain. This system is of my universe, but unlike yours I'm not restricted to this galaxy."_

Stonewire brought both hands towards the center of the hologram, causing it to zoom out. Giving view of a multitude of galaxies, Shepard could count at least fifteen of them. Every single one had different color tones, shapes, and sizes.

" _Comprehend. This is a small number of galaxies surrounding the Milky Way, There are many more that span even further into the universe."_

Stonewire pushed the hologram, moving it further away from the Milky Way before stopping it suddenly and zooming in on one galaxy.

" _Detail. This galaxy is called Mensae Nexus, home of the Avien race on the planet named Avos. Explain. A bird like race with a deeply-rooted religious ideology that values family bonds and warrior like spirits. Clarify. They lack the ability to fly and can be quite simple - but do not underestimate them, for what they lack in intelligence they make up for with their resourcefulness. Simplify. If it works they'll use it."_

Stonewire shifted the hologram again, switching to what could only be described as a humanoid bird; feathers on most parts of the body, the beak that protrudes from an elongated head, three talons on their bird-like feet and feathered arms. The picture switched to a few different variations of different color and build.

" _In this same galaxy the Hylotl live ninety-nine thousand light years away on a planet called Pagoda. They are an amphibian race known for their decadent love of art and culture, and pride themselves on their diplomatic nature that leads them to seek peaceful solutions to problems. Though they are aquatic they lack the ability to breathe underwater, they can however sustain high pressure underwater and have an exceedingly high lung capacity."_ Sail explained.

Another shift as the hologram now showed the fish like race, their streamlined head gave it a lizard-like shape, not including the third eye on its forehead. Fins seemed to run along the top of its head, no visible nose or ears. They also possess webbing between their four-digit hands and feet. The display then went on to shift between what Shepard could only assume to be subraces of this "Hylotl" species.

Before Stonewire could speak further he was interrupted by every occupant of the room, who all tried their hardest to call out over each other. All of their scrutiny was directed at him and he couldn't understand any of them before Shepard Interrupted.

"Quiet!"

The room instantly went silent. All eyes were on Shepard as she continued.

"I get it. Everything he just said sounds crazy, stupid, and even laughable. By now most of us know that's par for the course. I died and was brought back to life, we're working with Cerberus, we're on a mission to find mythical space bugs that are abducting humans, and we have three AIs on board. I only ask that you humor the idea that Stonewire is from where he says he is and just maybe he'll surprise you. So hear him out, and ask your questions when he's done. Whether he can prove that he's really from another universe is up to him."

It seemed that she was able to calm most of them, Stonewire waited a moment before continuing.

" _Sincere. I don't expect anyone to believe me, even if I showed every race of my universe I'm sure there will always be doubt, too many variables to consider and even then most people only see the multiverse theory as just that. Explain. The only race that we have in common is the humans."_

"Ah, implying different history all together. Hypothetically your 'universe' would need to be distinct from what would be considered the 'beginning'. Different races, different cultures... different technology." Mordin spoke up first.

"You can't actually believe any of that?" Jacob seemed surprised that the salarian would even consider it. "I mean, we met this thing a week ago and, I'm sorry Commander, but my understanding is that unshackled AI are dangerous. Especially those with a body. Even Cerberus wouldn't trust something they can't put in check."

"Only doing as Shepard asked. Wouldn't be a good salarian if I didn't humor the possibility."

"Bullshit." Jack rebuked.

"I've heard some crazy shit and half the time I'd sooner shoot my other goddamn eye out before I'd be convinced, but seeing is believing. Don't know about any of you, but I've never seen a mech built like that." Zaeed argued, pointing at Stonewire.

"Nothing is ever normal with you, is it Shepard? I liked it better when we'd get shot at and then we'd shoot back," Garrus sighed. "good times."

Shepard shrugged in response with a knowing grin. She mostly wanted to see how this would turn out. Stonewire so far has managed to at least get Mordin and, surprisingly, Zaeed to at least consider the possibility. Knowing Garrus she guessed that since he was making jokes he was also humoring the idea.

"I believe it."

Shepard felt like her jaw was going to hit the floor but stopped herself from looking dumbfounded as those words that left Miranda's mouth. Out of everyone she thought would believe Stonewire, her second-in-command was not one of them. Apparently she wasn't the only one as everyone else immediately had their eyes on her.

Miranda activated her omni-tool. "The Illusive Man shared the data that he bought off Stonewire. This AI got into dark space and managed to pinpoint where the Reapers are coming from, then it took over a ship filled with slavers. One of the bodies was missing their Omni-tool and the Kinetic Barrier was ripped out the armor. The only thing we were missing is how it got aboard the ship in the first place. It said its ship was destroyed, but we found no evidence. Originally Cerberus thought that it may have come from a different galaxy and even that was far-fetched. So it's hard to believe it would come with something more unbelievable."

"So what?" Jack asked. "That doesn't prove shi-"

She was cut off as Stonewire disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared next to Shepard, causing her to jump back. He placed his shotgun on the table.

" _Correction. I don't simply plan on you all believing me. Honest. In fact, I don't care, but what I bring to the table is more valuable than any thoughts you may have on my nature as an AI or how well together you think my programming is."_ With that said he slid the shotgun in front of Shepard. " _Perceive. I understand you are a close range fighter. Explain. This is one of mine, it works similar to any other weapon and this is the ammo."_ Stonewire removed the ammo belt from his shoulder. " _Assure. I'll show you how to load it later and answer any questions."_ Another flash and he was back where he was standing before.

Shepard was surprised he didn't start with that, it did manage to shut everyone up. She really wanted to ask about that, but she had a briefing to start.

"I know that there are still questions, but we have work to do."

* * *

"Recoil?"

" _Honest. It kicks as hard as it hits, better to have a tight grip on it or you might lose it."_

Stonewire and Shepard were both in the hangar. She had visited everyone else first to get a feel for how they were reacting to the new information; Jack and Zaeed didn't really seem to care, Jacob was having a hard time believing it but he was willing to just let it go for the moment, Miranda was very forthcoming with the information seeming to have taken their talk earlier to heart, and Garrus and Mordin were skeptical but also willing to see how the situation progressed.

All around not too bad, it wouldn't be too long before the rest of the crew would hear about it. Rumours get around quick in small ships, whether the info holds true or not.

"Are you sure you want me to use this? I'd imagine plasma isn't cheap. Even with my own I go through thermal clips pretty fast." Shepard admitted with a mischievous smile.

" _Correction. I have a charger on my ship for powering the cases but they do get worn out after a while, but I have enough here to last..."_ If Shepard had to guess she would have said it looked like he was worried. " _Advocate. I would recommend taking one of your own firearms just in case."_

A comfortable silence fell as Shepard tried to understand the weapon better. If she had to be honest it wasn't as sleek as most weapons she's seen, not in a bad way of course. It was very easy to tell that it couldn't collapse like her weapons for easy carry but it at least could lock to her back like any other gun. It was weighted at the front, to compensate for the recoil if she had to guess, and the plasma cell was loaded behind the foregrip. Stonewire had mentioned that it had an installment that electrified the plasma so it would take down shields and mechs more efficiently than most other infantry weapons.

Stonewire was comfortably sitting and sharpening a dagger, she wanted to ask why he wouldn't just install an Omni-blade or why he carried two melee weapons but didn't get the chance as his wrist manipulator lit up.

" _Shepard, I wanted to ask something."_ Sail's voice said over the manipulator.

"Go ahead."

" _From what I understand Cerberus is supplying us. So I'm curious as to the reasoning behind attacking the smugglers. I wish to know what we gain from it?"_

"Well, part of me just wants to take the Eclipse down a notch. They control a good chunk of smuggling on Omega, at least from what I can remember before I..." Shepard paused as she tried to find the right words. "died?" She tried. "The other part is what you can find, most of the time they smuggle the illegal stuff obviously, but sometimes you'll find rare stuff. Weapons still in development, equipment that could come in handy down the line."

" _So we're seeing if they have anything that we can use?"_

"That, and it's just not something I feel comfortable leaving alone, they supply some harmful narcotics like red sand. We can't take care of them all, but taking even one of these down at least makes me feel better."

" _Understandable."_

" _Hey Commander, we arrive at Daratar. Honestly looking pretty quiet Shepard."_ Joker said over the hangar comms.

"Scan the planet and let me know when you find something"

" _Right away Commander."_

They probably had a few more moments before they found something so Shepard turned to Stonewire.

"You know we've talked a lot, but I'm still not sure what you gain out of all this. I mean, wouldn't you want to get back home?"

" _Inquire. Back home?"_ He stopped sharpening his dagger at the sudden interest.

"I mean, you haven't shown much interest in any of this and if you didn't get involved with Cerberus you could have focused on anything else."

What was he hoping to gain? Short term he wanted to rid himself of the Illusive Man, and long term? If he hadn't had the pleasure of meeting Cerberus what would his next plan be? Has he really become so short sighted or is it just the situation is more complicated? Stonewire looked down at the blade in his hand.

" _Honest. I'm still looking for something, even back home I was just a gun for hire, an assassin, maybe I hoping for..."_ For the dead to forgive him? " _Regret. Maybe I'm looking to make up for past mistakes."_ Mistakes he wish he never made that he's felt have dictated his whole existence no matter how hard he tried to deviate. " _Positive. There's nothing for me home, I've looked, but maybe here..."_

Shepard wasn't sure on what he meant, but the way he looked at the dagger gave her something to ask. She wouldn't push now, last time she did that he didn't react well.

Just as she was about to change the subject Joker's voice suddenly picked up again.

" _Got a problem Shepard, listen to this."_

What played over comms sounded like a salarian. " _-all hands prepare to burn down the house._

 _Repeat: Suspicious ship detected in planetary orbit. All hands prepare to burn down the house."_

"Shit."

Stonewire sheathed the dagger as he stood.

"Jack, Garrus and Mordin to hangar ASAP. We're going planetside." Shepard quickly ordered.

" _Understood Commander."_

" _Obvious. That's not good."_ Stonewire interjected.

"God forbid something goes smoothly for once."

* * *

It only took a short while for everyone to board the shuttle. Mordin was glued to his omni-tool, most likely reviewing his notes on the Collectors for the umpteenth time, Garrus was checking over his gear once more, Shepard was standing still with her eyes closed focusing on her biotics, and Jack was glaring at Stone.

More like scowling at him. Had her stare been any more intense, it might have just burned a hole right through his helmet, his head, and the wall behind him. She had been doing it since they've gotten on the shuttle. He found it a bit unnerving how uncanny it was to a certain Floran he knew, though he was pretty sure it wasn't for the same reason. Still, that did not stop him from wondering if she would start hissing at him as well. Shepard seemed to notice this as well and called it out.

"I know a heated glare when I see one, but I'd like to know the reason behind it Jack."

Jack's gaze turned to Shepard. "You don't seriously trust this thing do you Shepard? I mean, I know you're desperate, but you really trust this thing not to get us killed."

" _Annoyed. Says the girl that was tearing through a space station in space. Ridicule. As strong as you are I think you've taken too many blows to the head to make rational decisions."_ Stonewire interrupted, getting tired of all the side talk like he wasn't right there.

"Oh you're asking for it bucket head." Jack immediately stood up to approach where he was seated but was body blocked by Shepard. Jack stared daggers at Shepard then back to Stone who's hand was hovering over his sidearm incase she decided to get violent.

"One wrong move tin can and we'll finish this right here." Jack warned.

" _Disdain. One move is all I'd need."_ The glare only intensified and Stone's visor was completely red.

Maybe it would have been better to just ignore her, but her childish attitude was really starting to irk him, a feeling he's not all that familiar with. He's loathed people before, even out right hated them, but he's always tried to be professional and he was probably just going to kill them anyway. So he couldn't really do anything to her if unprovoked.

"Don't start. Stonewire, I understand the frustration, but she has a right to be doubtful." Shepard spoke in a tone that conveyed a feeling of genuine understanding, even if it had a rather forceful undertone.

He nodded letting his hand fall from his holster, but not letting his guard down. Fights happened pretty normally between his old division when tension was high so he understood having to put a stop to it before it got out of hand. He would try to not escalate the situation more than he already had. Key word being 'try', being an assassin did mean it would be easier but everyone had their limits.

"And Jack. No matter how desperate I may seem, I need others to trust my judgement, being at each other's throats will only hinder our progress. So until he proves me wrong at least try to get along?" Shepard asked with the same tone.

Jack tsked, "Girl Scout." she barely whispered, but she took her seat, so Shepard took that as a win for the moment.

The turian sniper sighed, suddenly reminding everyone that he was there too

"Nothing like a bit of bonding before a mission." Garrus sarcastically put.

Even Mordin seemed to pull away from his research to comment. "In-fighting, waste of time and energy. Creates lack of focus. Would recommend finding common ground or it may affect cohesion and combat efficiency." Jack seemed to ignore the salarian but Stonewire knew he was right and nodded in response.

Scans of the planet showed that there was little to nothing in surface defences and that the base was mostly underneath the surface. The surface was relatively flat around the area they were going to land but there was some visible metal pathways and as they got closer they could see a few entrances.

There were a few groups of Eclipse mercs outside dressed in their signature mix of yellow and black. They fired on the shuttle as it landed but its shields and armor stopped most of it. At the same time a YMIR mech raised from some underground platform. Model 34-A or more commonly called a Heavy Mech standing around nine feet tall and four feet wide, Clad in marble-white armor with red lights. A massive killing machine designed for anti-infantry purposes with a mass accelerator machine gun for one arm and a rocket launcher for the other. if they came a minute later it would have blown them right out of the sky.

As soon as they stepped out Shepard shouted out orders. "Draw their fire away their fire away from the shuttle!"

Stonewire and Garrus split off to the left behind some guard barriers, while Shepard and Mordin took to the right. Jack went right at the mercs, firing of biotic energy and gunfire while protecting herself with her own barrier. Shepard and Mordin covered her before being fired on as well.

She was a frightful presence and the mercs probably agreed with how many started to retreat. The mech eventually booted up on her flank and fired on her with gunfire and rockets, forcing her to take cover.

"Take down the mech!" Shepard called out.

" _Irritated. Just a second!"_ As he said that another shot hit his cover. " _Order. Cover me."_ Stonewire told Garrus to which he nodded.

Stonewire holstered his rifle and pulled out his pistol and sword.

"I'm pretty sure there's a human saying about swords in gunfights." Garrus quipped as he leaned out of cover, popped a merc right through the mouth and pulled back as the rest returned fire.

" _Correct. It's knives. Inform. And it's not just a sword."_ Stone informed as he held the sword upside down and turned the pommel with his thumb. An energy like shield extended from the blade, with his shield active Stonewire pushed out of cover towards the mech.

"Somehow, not the craziest thing I've seen." Garrus said under his breath to himself as he lined up another shot.

The Eclipse mercs saw Stonewire, it was quite hard to miss the blue armored man across the red dirt of the planet, as he rushed across and tried to stop his advance only for him to face his shield towards them blocking incoming fire, any that got past to hit his feet were stopped by his kinetic barrier. Without slowing his pace he aimed his pistol and fired off multiple shots taking down a few as Garrus laid down anyone else that tried to stop him.

Stonewire turned his attention to the mech as it continued to fire on Jack who fired back a few times only to be forced back into cover. He may not like her but their on the same side and he can't question her usefulness, though he doubt he was going to get a 'thank you'. Stonewire fired a few shots to get it's attention, the heated plasma seemed to stick and burn and was having trouble eating through the armor plating but he got its attention.

As soon as it wasn't firing on Jack she blasted a few mercs that were getting to close.

Shepard and Mordin were dealing with their own group of mercs. Shepard couldn't get close enough without giving up cover to use her shotgun, but Mordin's explosive tech and her biotics was enough to clear the mercs from their side.

"Okay!" Shepard exclaimed as she turned around just in time to see Stone rushing the mech as it turned to him.

Stone was still a good twenty feet from it as it turned it's rocket launcher towards him, but he didn't stop. Rockets are slow, at least to him they were, and just as the rocket was about to hit him he holstered his pistol, deactivated the sword's shield and blinked past the missile and reappeared a couple of feet right above the mech.

Stonewire unsheathed his dagger, dragging the blade across the calf of his armor causing sparks to fly as the blade started to glow red hot almost instantly, and stabbed it right into the center of the heavy mech's head. The mech stumbled from the sudden damage only for Stone to regain his footing upon its shoulder and sinking his sword into its neck between the plating.

That wasn't enough as the mech was still trying to shake him. The rest of the squad didn't really know what to do with Stone riding the YMIR, even Jack seemed hesitant, she couldn't believe the tin can was attacking the mech with a sword. But their attention was drawn away to another group firing on them.

Stonewire was getting tired of this and twisted his sword and dagger trying to do as much damage as possible before an idea came to mind. He turned the pommel of his sword once more. If a robot could sound like it was in pain than this mech was in agony as it collapsed forward.

Just as it hit the ground Stone rolled with the fall as he pulled his sword and dagger free and used his sword to stop his momentum. He took a second on his knee before pushing himself up.

"An energy shield? Very interesting. Works like kinetic barrier but completely solid. Must take immense energy." Mordin stated.

" _Explain. Can only keep it active for about ten seconds before it needs to recharge, sort of like a kinetic barrier, but for those ten seconds nothing short of a rocket can destroy it, at least at this scale."_ Stonewire addressed as he sheathed his dagger and re-equipped his pistol.

"Quite remarkable."

"Don't mean to interrupt tech talk, but we managed to push them inside. We should keep up the pressure if we still want to salvage anything." Garrus input.

"Agreed, we need to keep moving." Shepard ordered.

"Then let's finish off the rest of these assholes." Jack needlessly input.

They moved up to one of the entrances and noticed immediately it was locked.

"Stonewire, can Sail get through?" Shepard asked.

Without missing a beat Stonewire hovered his Omni-tool over the lock and allowed Sail to get to work. To no one's surprise as soon as the door opened they starting taking fire from within. Everyone took cover by the opening.

"They got through!" They heard someone call out.

Shepard blind fired a few times with her pistol. The mercs wouldn't be able to hold them off for long but it would be long enough for them to destroy or move whatever goods they had.

"We need to get in there!" Shepard Shouted.

" _Acknowledged! On it!"_

Stonewire held his sword in a reverse grip and activated the shield once more. Like a riot shield Stone turned the corner and started firing from the side. It wasn't much but it forced the mercs into cover enough for the others to push as well.

"Handy." Shepard admitted.

At that moment Jack flew forward past Stonewire and started going wild with a shotgun in one hand and biotic power flowing through the other. If it was anymore reckless Stonewire would have thought that she was trying to help the smugglers burn the house down.

"Stick close and try not to damage the tech! Jack, pull back a bit, need you to keep it together!" Shepard called out to her.

Jack must have heard her because she almost seemed to pull back, if only a little. Stonewire was surprised, there wasn't many times a wild card could be put into place that fast. He's lead teams before and he wasn't new to handling reckless and stubborn soldiers, that's how he was able to tell that Shepard commanded respect from those under her. That she was able to command Jack like that, even to such a small extend, spoke about her ability to lead.

They fought their way through LOKI and FENRIS Mechs with a few Eclipse mercenaries beside them. It didn't take long for them to fight their way to what they guessed was the storage area. They stood above it on a platform that had a lift leading down to the open area.

Below stood three YMIR heavy Mechs currently destroying crates and from the looks of it had already made progress through most of them.

"Garrus stay here with suppressing fire, Mordin stay with him and keep any strays off his back. Stonewire and Jack, we're on mech duty." Shepard commanded.

With that the three quickly made their way down to the floor as they open fired on one of the mechs. The other two continued to destroy crates meaning that they didn't have to deal with all three, but they needed to be quick if they wanted anything to salvage.

It turned toward them and started firing at them with a mass accelerator twin machinegun. Stonewire took cover behind a metal pillar while both Shepard and Jack moved behind a large crate. Garrus and Mordin peppered it from afar weakening its shields.

"Cover me!" Shepard pulled the Plasma shotgun off her back and bioticly charged at the mech.

She hit the knee of the mech causing it to stagger as both Jack and Stone opened fire on it. Shepard unloaded plasma under one of its arms as she backed away. The electrocuted plasma bypassed the armor and started to electrically burn the circuitry. Stonewire wasn't wrong about the kick, she was going to bruise in the morning if she didn't get control of the recoil.

The mech turned its aim to her but was stopped by Jack as she let out a fierce cry and used her biotics to pull its still working arm into the air.

"Just try it asshole!" She screamed.

Stonewire took the opening and fired the last of his gun's battery into its underarm. The mech didn't get another chance to retaliate as it unceremoniously collapsed to the ground. Without respite they were fired on again by a small team of Eclipse mercs with one of the YMIR.

"They're almost done, just hold them off a bit longer!" An asari ordered as she sent a biotic shockwave towards Shepard.

Shepard dodged into cover as the shockwave blew past her. The asari wasn't wrong, a lot of the crates were scrapped and they still had one of the mechs destroying the rest. It would take too long to take out this group then move to the last mech, they'd be digging through trash by the end of it.

Stonewire most have had the same idea.

" _Advocate! Need to take out that last mech or there'll be nothing left!"_ He warned as he reloaded his rifle.

A blast of biotic energy clipped Shepards cover, "I'm open to suggestions!" She yelled as she blind fired around the corner with her pistol as she was out of range with her shotgun.

" _Suggestion! I can take these ones, go after the mech!"_ As he said that Shepard watched as he pulled something from his belt.

Shepard gritted her teeth before speaking, "Garrus, keep him covered! Jack, with me!" She ordered. She wasn't going to let him fight alone, but if he thought he could take the mercs then they could take the last mech.

Stonewire and Garrus covered them as they pulled away towards the YMIR. He waited for them to be out of range of whatever range his new grenade would have. He had theories on what could happen, but testing it was the only way to know for sure.

Stonewire pushed closer to the mercs. " _Order. SAIL, record range, effects, and duration of maglock test one."_ Without waiting for a response he tossed the maglock grenade out.

* * *

Garrus watched as the circular device rolled in front of the Eclipse's cover. The outer cover of what he assumed was a grenade expand and release some kind of blue pulse of energy that from his perspective only made the lights flicker, just barely out of range of the pulse. It seemed to repeat that action over each second.

What surprised him was when Stonewire jumped from his position and... didn't fire? He must have been confused as well as he looked down at his weapon. Garrus quickly aimed down towards the mercs and noticed that they were doing the same, not wanting to miss a shot he fired, popping one in the head... Strange, he didn't see any flash of a kinetic barrier.

"Shepard's going to want to see this." Before he pressed the side of his visor.

"Position is compromised. Only matter of time before we come under fire." Mordin stated as he locked the door behind them.

"Stick to the plan, set up charges and as soon as they're about to come through we move."

* * *

Good news, it works! Probably the first time in a long time that something he's made had worked on the first try. Bad news, it worked to well. The maglock was technically made from parts of an EMP but something about Element Zero was messing with his guns. More good news, it also worked on the mech's guns. It was spewing out warnings about being unable to fire before going completely dormant. Even more bad news, it was affecting more of his exposed equipment, he heard a warning from his wrist-manipulator before he turned it off hoping to save it from any permanent damage. He also felt a slight tingling sensation and he's armor was starting to glow, he had a theory but there was more urgent matters to tackle.

Another body fell as Garrus covered him, so he knew that the range couldn't reach them. If he couldn't use his guns then there was only one option left. Stonewire slid his rifle over his shoulder as he unsheathed his sword.

"Barrier now!" One of the asari that seemed to be leading the small team shouted at another near her.

A blue barrier of energy appeared a few meters in front of Stonewire and was high enough that Garrus wouldn't be able to cover him. Stonewire used his blink ability and managed to pass the barrier with ease.

"Cover her!" A couple of humans moved in front of the biotic and activated their omni-blades.

Or at least they tried not realizing that none of their tech was working. Their omni-tools activated in that familiar orange, but their shapes quickly began to lose cohesion and they started to flicker, like a dying lightbulb. Before long, they seemingly glitched out of existence, leaving only black, electrical smoke on the gauntlets on which they were projected.

Stonewire closed the distance to the first human who was still confused and slashed downward. The human instinctually put up his arms. The blade cut through both arms, before he could scream Stone stabbed him through the throat before quickly pulling away. The other human was about five feet away so Stonewire threw his sword, it sunk straight into his chest as the glitch blinked closer to the impaled human and grabbed the hilt of his sword. Stone used his weight to push the man down as he rolled forward pulling his sword free and ready to strike down the asari keeping up the barrier.

Stonewire was about to finish her before blinked out of the way of a biotic blast that tore a nearby crate in half. Even though he avoided the blast his armor still picked up some of that energy. Another pulse from the maglock confirmed his fears as the tingle turned into a burning sensation. If he picked up any more energy or was hit directly he's not sure what would happen, but he wasn't in a hurry to find out.

Those arcs or energy kept coming at him and Stone kept blinking to avoid them. Everytime his armor picked up more energy and the burning sensation heightened. He wasn't sure how much he could take before it became a significant problem.

" _The en... asari... off, is as high... Jac... perha... exceeding."_ SAIL tried to informed. Their communication device under his armor was protected but the signal was deficient.

Stonewire guessed that she was talking about the power the asari was putting off, exceeding Jack's he presumed. Her eyes were glowing blue and her nose had a stream of purple blood running down it. Stonewire had an idea what was causing it, every time that bit of energy from his maglock hit the two biotics they let out pained screams more intense than the last, but it seemed to be boosting their powers to a dangerous degree. He had to take them down.

The one holding the barrier seemed to be struggling, not with sustaining it, but like she was failing to pull away from it. It was like she couldn't stop the flow of energy. In fact it was like her muscles had completely locked up.

"What did you do!?" The other asari screamed out in pain.

Stonewire rolled out of the way of another wave. He couldn't risk getting hit by it, his armor was already lit up like a novakid. He started pushing towards the biotic only to feel light on his feet as they were no longer touching the floor as he was lifted into the air. The asari let out another roar of energy at him as he was held in the air only for him to blink back to the ground.

Stonewire closed the distance as she swung wildly at him like a rabid animal with every thrashing movement sending out another biotic blast out. She wasn't paying any mind to how she completely vaporized some of her men by accident.

The glitch continued to blink around her, every time he had an opening he would slash at her only for to feel like he was swinging in water, every strike felt slower than the last, he needed leverage. He blinked behind her and ducked as she swung at his head wiping out another group of her own men. Stonewire jumped into the air thrusted downward with his sword, aiming for the asari's neck only for her to grab the blade with hand.

Asari blood dripped down the blade as Stonewire landed and tried to pull it out of her grasp only for the biotic to raise her other hand towards him with energy building into another blast. Stonewire lifted his leg and pulled his dagger free and stabbed up into her wrist and redirected it at the unprotected back of the other asari.

That bit of biotic energy seemed to be all she could take as a blast of biotic power emanating from her head completely destroyed the area around her, the metal floor panels were singed, partly uprooted and the few bodies that laid near her were turned to dust.

Another pulse of energy hit both Stonewire and the asari. It was bad, the slight pain that Stone felt before was gone was replaced with a numb feeling, he even felt his vision flicker a few times. The asari wasn't looking too good either, her whole chin was covered in blood from her nose and it looked like she was starting to fade, but her grip was locked on his blade and she started to glow.

Fool him once. Stonewire's robotic mind went through every option, one was simply pushing away and running out of range, but he saw the range of the first one and this asari was more powerful than the one who held the barrier, it would strike him before he could reach a safe distance. Second was trying to blink away, but with how the Maglock was affecting him he was pretty sure it was affecting his other tech and even if he did get out of range the Maglock also completely put down the YMIR and he needed to get out of range of that as well. So that left one option.

The trained assassin released his sword and turned his wrist to grab it the other way and then twisted it unbalancing the asari. He then pulled the dagger free and stepped around to have her between him and the Maglock and flipped the dagger downward and brought it down into the back of her head. As he expected the energy stopped building, but it had to go somewhere.

Stonewire quickly brought both arms up in front of his face as a shield and jumped. He timed it perfectly as he was blasted back by her biotic energy. His armor took most of the hit but it was already full on energy so he took the full brunt of it. It also took him just out of range of the Maglock, but after two more pulses it ended. The whole situation only took around thirty seconds, everything happened so fast that Stonewire almost missed the salarian that started to run away after witnessing the whole event. Almost.

Stonewire quickly got to his feet and pulled his pistol free. It didn't fire as the amphibian rounded the corner and Stonewire broke into a sprint to follow. His body for the most part felt okay, his vision blurred a few times but quickly evened out. His armor was holding up so there was probably no lasting damage. He quickly checked the cell in his gun and noticed it was burnt out. It was blackened, slightly warped, and emitting an alarming amount of smoke. He pulled a new one off his belt and noticed it was okay. That probably meant that the one in his rifle was bad as well.

He rounded the corner just as the salarian made it through a archway and was trying to close the door. Stonewire fired a few shots but only managed to clip them before the door shut. Another test he tried to blink and did so successfully next to the door. Stone turned on his manipulator.

" _Stone, I lost you after near the end there, what happened?"_ Sail sounded worried, but still composed.

" _Order. Open this door and give Shepard my location."_ That's all Sail needed, she quickly got to work on the door.

Only a second later the door opened and Stonewire stepped through. At first he didn't see anything, he stepped into some kind of lounge area, quite a large one but there was no visible exits. He stood at the only way out and listened, he wasn't sure if it was just this one guy left but he locked the door behind him and had Sail recode it as he moved further in.

That's when he heard the familiar sound of tools cluttering to the floor from one of the rooms. Carefully he moved to the door and put his head to it. He couldn't hear anything so most likely the target was alone. He hovered his manipulator over the door and Sail opened it easily messaging him that it wasn't locked. Stonewire moved in and scanned the whole room before closing the door behind him. Sail made sure to change the lock again so only Stone and the others could get in or out.

Stonewire went radio silent as to not completely give himself away.

It was some kind of workshop, a really messy one but still. He saw the box of tools that must have been knocked over, on the table was a partly disassembled gun. Maybe the salarian was trying to put it back together. Did the Maglock also burnout the mass accelerator weapons? That meant that the salarian was unarmed, but he would still be careful. There was only a few places that someone could possibly hide, first was behind the workbench. He silently moved to the side and quickly aimed around the corner. Nothing.

Stonewire noticed a lit up screen and watched as data was being deleted. Stonewire expected equipment was the main priority but data would probably be too important to ignore. He moved his hand over the computer and Sail got straight to work trying to save what was left.

He moved to another side of the room and kept his eyes on every corner he couldn't fully see. There was a desk with some kind of cloth hanging off it near a wall that looked like it could probably be hidden under. Stonewire moved quietly and stopped a few feet away from it before crouching. He took aim and fired three shots through the cloth and under the table, he didn't hear anything but quickly turned around to see the salarian only a couple of feet from him. Stonewire tried to bring his pistol up only for the salarian to grab his arm.

It was obvious that his target had better CQC training than those humans. He got the drop on him and even managed to keep his gun hand from raising. If he approached Stone from any further it would have been done and over, bad news for him is that Stonewire has had more training and experience. But what caught Stonewire off guard was what the salarian was wearing on his arm.

Normally when someone tried to punch him in the head he would catch it with his helmet and try to break some fingers, but when it came to that gauntlet he really didn't want to become brain dead. Instead he pulled back and let the fist fly past him and catched the forearm between his head and shoulder, then dropped his gun into his other hand. The salarian saw this and let go of of Stone's right hand and redirected the other.

The salarian was paying too much attention to the glitch's hands that he didn't notice Stone move his foot behind his and tripped him causing the salarian to fall backwards. It was smart to keep an eye on the gun but that left him open. Stonewire caught him by his collar and pulled him close so he press his pistol past the kinetic barrier, if it was even active, and fired, the heated plasma melted right through his skull.

Stonewire let the body fall before crouching beside it and started to remove the gauntlet. It was exactly the same as when he first saw it, but that couldn't be right.

" _Is that what I believe it is?"_ Stone heard Sail ask. But there was no question, it couldn't be right but the proof was right in front of him.

A gold colored gauntlet with four protrusions on the knuckles for discharging energy, if the salarian managed to hit him with this it would have probably turned Stone's head backwards and have broken every bone in the salarians arm.

" _Reject. That can't be right, why would she be here... Order. Sail find anything you can on this."_ Stonewire quickly ordered.

" _On it."_

* * *

"Almost there." Shepard said out loud as they rounded the corner with Garrus. They finished off the rest of the Eclipse with probably only a few stragglers around.

So when Garrus quickly explained what he saw Mordin wanted to scan the bodies, they left him with Jack to guard his back as they went to help Stonewire. What Garrus said sounded like something out of a nightmare for biotics, Jack didn't look that tense over the description he gave, but neither of the biotics wanted to go near the grenade that caused it.

When he sent them the video he took it drew some similarities to the drug red sand. The asari biotic was powerful for sure, but when that grenade activated it was like they were on a different level. It was hard to tell what kind of feelings that the asari's were feeling from the distance of the video but It was almost like every pulse was causing intense pain.

Shepard tried to contact him, but Sail informed her that he had to go silent to avoid detection. She could understand that, Stone did say he was an assassin so he was probably used to working alone, didn't mean she had to like it. When she made it to the lounge area Sail immediately designated the door.

Suddenly they heard a shot go off. Just once and then nothing as they both moved up to the door and opened it. As they barged in guns at the ready they were met with Stonewire hovering over a console with a dead salarian a few feet away.

"I guess you didn't need backup." Garrus stated.

" _Absorbed. Took too long, didn't know what he was planning, had to act fast."_ Stonewire's eyes were practically glued to the screen.

"Found something interesting?" Shepard asked.

" _Uneasy. I'm... not sure."_ That didn't tell her anything.

"So... are you going to tell us or just keep us in suspense?" Garrus said slightly impatient.

At that Stonewire absentmindedly tossed the gauntlet to Shepard. " _Cite. 'Stun Glove, shockingly effective.' Unsure. I... knew someone who used this weapon before, I don't know what to make of it."_

"Wait, isn't that a good thing? It means that someone else can corroborate your story. Always helps to have someone testify for your side." Garrus tried to reassure.

"That's if they're alive." Shepard said before she could stop herself.

Stonewire found the weapon, just not the person it belonged to. That could mean anything but it was more than likely that they didn't make it. Stone must have been thinking the same thing because he almost seemed to freeze from the words.

Suddenly he turned around before activating his omni-tool. " _Definite. Doubt it, she probably just forgot about it, there's not much that can faze her kind. Forebode. The problem is who's involved and might know about her."_ At that Shepard received a message on her omni-tool.

The message was barely coherent. There was several bits missing but the thing that stood out to her the most was the number of zeros next to "Electric gauntlet". Now Shepard didn't know who would pay that much but as she kept scrolling through she found the name Shadow Broker mentioned a few times.

"That is more credits than I'd make in a lifetime in C-sec, maybe two." Garrus stated in surprise while looking over Shepard's shoulder.

"Why would they want this so badly?" Shepard questioned.

" _Suspicious. The real question is how much do they know about it. Explain. If they know this technology is unlike everything here than it would be worth every credit spent."_ Stonewire moved over to Shepard and held out his hand for the gauntlet.

Shepard had no problem handing it over, it was his friend's after all. He just locked it to his belt and started walking back with them towards the rest of the group. "What do you plan on using it for?" She asked.

" _Sincere. Lock it away."_ He simply stated.

"What? It seems like a waste to not use it." Garrus argued.

" _Agree. You're not wrong, but anything with bones and wants to keep them intact shouldn't use this one."_ Stonewire claimed.

"You can't be serious?" Shepard questioned in disbelief.

" _Explain. She modified this one beyond reconstruction, any creature that has a similar bone density of a human would shatter every bone in their arm if discharged and I can only think of two races that could use this and one of them could only do it twice at most. Revise. Maybe three now after meeting the krogan."_ Shepard was pretty sure she just saw Stonewire shudder. It seems the assassin is scared of something after all.

"Hey asshole!" They all heard her but they knew who it was directed at. Jack was standing there holding the Maglock while staring holes into Stonewire. "What the fuck are you planning on using this-"

Before she could finish that sentence Stonewire blinked right in front of her and snatched the grenade out of her hand before blinking away.

"What the hell!" Jack shouted.

" _Scold. Are you crazy. Reprimand. I'm not sure how much charge this thing still has and after what happened to those asari I really don't need you putting yourself or any other biotic in danger."_ Stonewire stated from atop an undamaged crate.

"What even is that thing? What happened to the asari?" Shepard demanded.

" _Explain. It was only supposed to shut down weapons like yours but I mixed parts of an EMP with some Element Zero, the effect wasn't what I was hoping for... at all."_ Stonewire was just sitting on top of the crate, taking apart the grenade and shoving the parts into a pouch on his belt.

"Eezo nodules throughout nervous system shot, most likely caused spasticity, continuous muscle contractions. Her muscles locked up. Swelling of the brain. Internal hemorrhaging. Low chances of survival. Would likely die an excruciatingly painful death. Before that occurred would see increase in biotic potential. Highly dangerous. Would recommend caution in further use." Mordin suddenly explained after scanning the bodies once more.

Shepard couldn't believe, Stone created something that on a small scale turned two biotics into destructive monsters before turning them into bombs. Did he feel the same? Looking up to Stonewire she could seem him almost frantically taking the thing apart.

"How many did you make?" Shepard asked.

Stonewire without looking up held up two fingers.

"Dismantle them both." Shepard ordered.

" _Assure. Way ahead of you."_ He answered as he hopped down from the crate and retrieved his sword and dagger from the asari corpse.

"That... was strangely easy." Garrus announced.

Shepard agreed. "Why so quick to agree, I would have guessed a weapon like that would make life easier for you?"

" _Explain. It affected me and my weapons as well, and look at the YMIR. Clarify. I never touched it but it's completely burnt out, most EMPs don't work on my kind but I felt myself blackout a few times. Rationalize. We have biotics and AIs on this mission, the Maglock is more of a hindrance than anything else."_

It made sense, but the way he worded it made it sound like if it didn't affect him he would've made it a standard in his arsenal. "Okay, just make sure you also deal with any blueprints." It looked like he was about to argue, but she wouldn't let him. "I know you said it contains some parts from your home, but that's still too dangerous to have just laying around no matter how locked away you have it. Understood?"

" _Reluctant. I understand."_ He really did, but he knew, if given the time, he could work out the bugs.

* * *

After getting what they could and destroying what was left, mostly drugs and scrape, everyone returned to their normal station. Apparently some Eclipse mercs managed to get to some shuttles but Joker scattered them right as they hit orbit.

Stonewire returned to his shuttle, he pet his rabbit through the cage that he bought on Omega including food pellets and a water tube.

Opening a nearby crate he found the last Maglock grenade.

" _Inquire. Sail, would you please delete the blueprints."_

" _Are you sure? I understand it's Shepard's order, but-"_

" _Reluctant. It's probably best to do as she says, we don't have time to argue morals. Annoyed. I guess blasting someone into dust with biotics is a bit less extreme than the amount of pain this causes."_ He stated holding up the grenade in one hand.

" _It's done."_

Now there was only one thing left to do... why was he hesitating? It's an order from the Commander, he should be ready to do whatever it takes to complete the mission, but doesn't that mean she should too? Given time and some more tinkering this weapon could change the battle for the better.

So instead Stonewire did as he was told, he opened it up and pulled out the Element Zero core. Just as he was told, he dismantled it.

After that Stonewire put it away and started working on some code on his manipulator. He went over a few different star systems and maps outlining possible locations and trying to lower the field of error.

After he was done he sent it to Sail. " _Order. Send this to our ship."_

" _Got it, but are you sure it will pick up something so specific? And if I contact our ship it might be picked up by others even while cloaked."_

" _Confirm. It's the best shot we got at finding her, besides, finding a person sized star shouldn't be too difficult."_

 **0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

 **Wow I haven't updated in a while, sorry about that**

 **This mostly took a long time because I just didn't have the time**

 **And that this chapter has a lot to unpack, not enough to be confusing or overbearing**

 **But enough that it was hard to make sure everything got enough attention**

 **Hope that** **eight** **edit:nine edit:TEN** **thousand words makes up for it**

 **Either way, until next time**

 **-0-**

 **Y'hello? I'm Val, a beta-reader of this fic. I'm just putting this here as a message to the guest who found this "too realistic" and " not at all like a video game."**

 ***ahem***

 **THAT'S.**

 **THE.**

 **POINT.**

 **ALL THIS IS BASED ON THE GAME, BUT IT IS NOT AN ACTUAL GAME.**

 **IF ALL THIS WAS A GAME, NONE OF THE CRAZY SHIT HERE WOULD MAKE SENSE.**

 **DON'T FORGET IT, CAPICHE?**

 **I'D TELL YOU TO FUCK OFF BUT JOSH'D PROBABLY GET MAD AT ME.**

 **Sincerely and eagerly,**

 **Val the Doctor**

 **0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

 **Don't mind him, he can be very... passionate**

 **But he's got a point, I don't really like stories that rely heavily on game mechanics**

 **Makes it feel less like a story when killing something drops money or universal ammo**


End file.
